Usually the dream run of a car ends after a few months of the launch of the car and the sales figure for the vehicle stabilize. However, there is something special going on with Honda Civic as the car has been topping the sales charts ever since it was launched in the Indian market. Honda Civic locks horns with Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Corolla Altis and Skoda Octavia in the Indian market. The Japanese maker brought the car to India after a long gap of 7 years and still the car is making news among the customers. Talking numbers, the Civic managed to sell 368 units in the market in May 2019, which is just a unit short of its sales figures in April. On the other hand, the Toyota Corolla Altis managed a tally of 134 units and the Hyundai Elantra and Skoda Octavia could manage 234 units and 105 units respectively.
Honda Civic was launched in the Indian market a good three months ago and has still managed to keep sales figures as per the company's expectations. This is a major achievement especially in the Indian market where the customers are fast moving to the bigger SUV models and the space for executive segment sedan is fast shrinking. The SUV craze in India has seen the launch of vehicles like Tata Harrier in the market where Tata has even gone ahead and shelved projects in favour of bringing out SUVs in the market. The coming months will witness the launch of vehicles like the Kia Seltos and MG Hector in the Indian market which will further spell trouble for high priced sedans in India.
Talking about the Civic sedan, Honda has priced the all-new Civic slightly higher than the rivals in the Indian market. Prices for Honda Civic begin at Rs 17.69 lakh for the base model and the top model comes in at Rs. 22.29 lakh, ex-showroom. Taking a look at the competition we find that Hyundai Elantra’s base model begins at Rs. 13.81 lakhs, Skoda offers the base model of its Octavia at Rs. 15.99 lakhs whereas Toyota has priced its Corolla Altis at Rs. 15.7 lakhs.
With an option for petrol and diesel engines, the petrol motor in Honda’s new executive sedan is a 1.8-litre 4-cylinder unit rated for Bhp and 174 Nm. While the diesel unit is a 1.6-litre mill rated for 118 Bhp and 300 Nm. While the petrol models come with a CVT automatic gearbox, the diesel models make do with a manual transmission only. Honda has also said that depending on the customer demand, a diesel automatic version could be launched as well. Talking about expected version, the performance version of Civic was spotted testing at company's factory in Greater Noida. However, the performance version is unlikely to make its way to India as the demand for performance cars in India in the sub-30 lakh segment is very small. Honda has introduced the Civic for a primarily urban customer segment that wanted to transition beyond Honda City and was looking for a more premium option.