According to reuters who quoted Japan's Nikkei, Honda is planning to launch three new mini-car models within the short future. One model will debut at the end of this year in December with another two due in 2012. Minicars or 'Kei-cars' in Japan are those with engines up to 660cc and they get special exemptions making them very popular in Japan. They are also very popular in many other countries in Asia. The new model for December is claimed to sport a 660cc engine and delivers up to 25km/l fuel economy. It is claimed that Honda plans for Kei-car sales to increase to 43% of their total annual sales, up from the current 24%.
For more details and the whole report, the link to go to is http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/05/honda-idUSL3E7K501Q20110905
TOVA's view: there have been many extremely intriguing Kei-cars from Honda in the past but almost all limited for JDM sales only. Models like the Honda Z Turbo which sports a 60ps 660cc turbo-charged engine on a 4WD platform and the current Honda Life Turbo are just the right models to bring back a much needed spark of life to Honda. In the Honda Malaysia marketing office car-park in PJ, there used to be a Honda Life parked there long term. I personally saw and touched the car though my friends then was unable to let me test drive it because it wasn't registered. The car was brought in as part of a study to launch the Life for sale in Malaysia. Eventually it seems government regulations was one of the main reason why the plan was cancelled. It is no coincidence that none of the big japanese makers have a kei-car to challenge the Perodua MyVi and Proton Savvy at the moment. Hopefully things will change soon and perhaps the Honda Brio might be the first Honda Kei-car to be launched here in Malaysia. It needs to show up in Thailand first of all though.
No comments:
Post a Comment