All-new fifth-gen Honda City unveiled in India, to be launched in July 2020

Honda Cars India has unveiled the fifth-generation City in the country and has confirmed that the sedan will be launched in July 2020. And that is when the prices of the sedan will be announced. Honda mentions that the new City is the longest and widest sedan in its segment. Further, it is India's first connected car with Alexa remote capability and comes with many segment-first features. The 2020 Honda City will rival the likes of the Hyundai Verna, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and the Skoda Rapid in India.

Design and features

In terms of dimensions, the new-gen Honda City measures 4,549mm in length, 1,748mm in width, 1,489mm in height and has a wheelbase of 2,600mm. Mentioning the design language of the 2020 City, Honda states that it is inspired by the Japanese Katana blade, a type of curved sword used by ancient samurai. The updated design makes the hood appear longer with a well-defined character line running from the headlights to the tail of the sedan. It gets all-LED headlamps with 9 LED array inline shell, integrated LED DRL and L-shaped LED turn signal and Z-shaped 3D wrap-around LED tail lamps.

The equipment list of the 2020 Honda City consists of an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system with CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, 7-inch colour TFT instrumentation which in addition to the regular information on trip, distance to empty also comes with a GForce meter, electric sunroof, remote engine start, automatic headlights, etc. The 2020 City comes with premium leather on the steering wheel, gear lever and also on the trims. Considering that the City is not the longest and the widest in its segment, the cabin too has become more spacious than before. The cabin offers best-in-class knee room and legroom along with a boot capacity of 506 litres.

Underpinning

Underpinning the 2020 Honda City is a new lightweight platform with higher rigidity which has been achieved with the increased use of ultra-high tensile strength steel along with the use of super high formability 980 MPa grade steel. The suspension setup has been tweaked too with reduced friction for improved handling, stability and comfort. Even the torsional rigidity has been improved for better driving dynamics at high speeds. The NVH levels has been brought down with the use of spray foam sound insulator which has increased the insulation to 3.5 times in the engine undercover area and double sealing structure for door.

BSVI compliant powertrains

The 2020 Honda City is being offered with 1.5L i-VTEC engine that makes 121PS at 6,600 rpm and generates 145Nm at 4,300rpm. This engine can be optioned with either a 6-speed manual transmission or a 7-speed CVT, both of which are new transmission options. The mileage figures for both as claimed by Honda are 17.8kmpl (MT) and 18.4kmpl (CVT).  The diesel on the other hand is 1.5L i-DTEC that makes 100PS at 3,600rpm and generates 200Nm at 1,750rpm mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. Honda claims that the diesel heart will offer a mileage of 24.1kmpl.

Safety

The 2020 Honda City features six airbags - Dual front airbags, front seat and side curtain airbags, ABS, EBD, ISOFIX seats, Pedestrian Injury Mitigation Technology, Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA), Hill Start Assist (HSA), Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), Honda LaneWatch Camera, Emergency Stop Signal and more. Also, the 2020 City gets an equivalent of the ASEAN NCAP 5-star safety rating.