Honda City e: HEV With 26.5 km/l Economy Announced In India: Engine, Features

Last Updated on April 16, 2022 by Anu Joy

Honda has finally unveiled the Honda City e: HEV in India. Unlike the mild hybrid cars such as the Maruti Ertiga and Maruti Ciaz, the Honda City e: HEV is a proper strong hybrid car. It uses a petrol engine and an electric motor driven by a Li-ion battery pack to provide a very good fuel economy. The battery pack in this car doesn’t need to be recharged like electric vehicles, as it gets charged when the petrol motor is running. 

In a country like India, where even the CNG infrastructure is lacking after so many years, the EV infrastructure will still need some time. Also, range anxiety is a major issue faced by EV owners and also a concern for prospective buyers. Not to mention the harm caused to the environment as an EV car is more likely to catch fire than its ICE counterpart. Thus, hybrid cars are the more viable options in the current situation. 

With a certified ARAI economy of 26.5 km/l, it can travel up to 1000km on a full tank, something that EV users can only dream of at this point. Also, you can top up the tank at any fuel station within a few minutes and continue your journey as opposed to EVs, which can take up to an hour to recharge fully. 

Honda e: HEV: Features, Design

The Honda e: HEV borrows a sportier bumper from the internationally available Honda City RS Turbo. The fog lamp housing with slats is different from the standard model which we get in India. The grille remains the same with chrome plating, but the Honda logo gets blue accents denoting its hybrid credentials. At the rear, this hybrid variant comes with a lip spoiler, the ‘e: HEV’ badging, and blue accents surrounding the Honda logo. The rear bumper is lifted from the Honda City RS Turbo and comes with a diffuser that lends it a sporty character. The alloy wheels remain the same as the petrol/diesel variants. 

Talking about the interiors of the car, it comes with a black and beige colour scheme that you’ll be familiar with. The only visible changes include a new digital instrument cluster, which shows the powertrain and battery-related stats. The manual handbrake has been replaced by an electronic parking button along with an auto brake hold system.

Some noteworthy features on offer include an electric sunroof, ambient lighting, an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, an eight-speaker surround sound system, Honda Connect with Amazon Echo/ Google Assistant/Smartwatch integration, and more. The Honda e: HEV comes with Honda Sensing, which is Honda’s version of ADAS system that comes with lane departure warning, lane keep assist, forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, and automatic emergency braking. This ADAS system isn’t present in the petrol/diesel models. 

Other safety features include six airbags, a reverse parking camera, parking sensors, vehicle stability assist, hill start assist, emergency stop signal, tyre deflation warning system, auto high-beam headlamps, and a lane watch camera, among others.   

Honda e: HEV Powertrain

The Honda City e: HEV is powered by a four-cylinder 1.5-litre Atkinson Cycle i-VTEC petrol engine that develops 98PS of peak power and 127Nm of peak torque. Combining this with the electric motor, the car puts out 109PS and 253Nm of torque. The torque figures are even higher than the Honda City diesel variant, which gets 200Nm of torque.  

The car utilises the electric motor while ambling around in the city at 40kmph. Between 40kmph and 80kmph speeds, it uses a combination of electric motor and petrol engine. At highways speeds of 120kmph and beyond, it drives on the petrol engine only. So, to extract maximum efficiency out of it you need to stay below 100kmph and also use its regenerative braking system to aid in battery charging. 

The addition of the 0.734kWh Li-ion battery pack in the boot has decreased the boot volume to 410 litres from the original 506 litres of space in the petrol/diesel counterparts. Also, the entire hybrid system has added about 100kg to the car’s overall weight. That’s not much of a concern as the torque figures have almost doubled, which can handle the weight increment without breaking a sweat. Furthermore, Honda has added rear disc brakes to this car to improve the braking efficiency. 

Honda City e: HEV: Price, Availability

The Honda City e: HEV will be launched in early May, 2022, in India. Expect it to arrive in two trims at the least. The prices are expected to be ₹2.5 lakhs higher than the petrol automatic variants. It could start at ₹17.5 lakhs ex-showroom in India. It would be a perfect choice for those who have to travel daily. For instance, with a running of 20,000km per year, the breakeven can be achieved in 3-4 years. If your yearly run is more than that, you can recover those extra 2.5 lakhs even earlier.    

Honda is providing a three year/unlimited kilometres warranty, which can be extended to up to 5 years. The Li-ion battery pack comes with an eight-year warranty.