Honda's Maruti Brezza And Hyundai Creta Rivals Confirmed: Launch Timelines Revealed
Finally, after not having an affordable sub-4m vehicle in the lineup for a while now, the Japanese automotive giant Honda has officially confirmed that it is currently developing a brand-new sub-compact SUV for the Indian market. It has been announced that this new Maruti Suzuki Brezza-rivalling SUV will be making its debut by 2028. Honda has also announced that it will be launching a new Creta rivalling compact SUV in 2028 as well.
As stated, this upcoming model will be competing in the extremely competitive segment of the sub-compact SUVs, which currently has some of the highest-selling compact SUVs in India. These include the Maruti Suzuki Brezza, Tata Nexon, Hyundai Venue, Mahindra XUV 3XO, and Kia Sonet, along with others. This particular announcement of the new Honda sub-4m SUV was made during Honda’s latest financial results press conference.
The last time Honda had a vehicle in this segment was the WR-V crossover, which was discontinued in March 2023. Currently, Honda has only one model in the sub-4m segment, which is also a sedan and not an SUV: the Honda Amaze. As a result, this upcoming compact SUV will become an extremely important addition to Honda’s portfolio in India.
Unlike other automakers, Honda is in desperate need of this sub-4-metre SUV because this segment is currently one of the highest-selling segments in the Indian passenger vehicle market. Cars in this segment offer SUV-like styling, high ground clearance, practicality, and come loaded with features.
Additionally, what helps this segment even more is the lower taxation under sub-4m rules. As a result, Honda's new sub-compact SUV will help it in increasing its sales volumes, which, as we all are aware, have been decreasing over the last few years. Honda has also lost a big chunk of market share, which will be regained by the launch of this SUV.
Presently, Honda has been going through a lot of challenges in India. Of these, the main challenge is cost optimization. With the upcoming SUV, Honda has to make sure that it is priced competitively and is cost-effective to manufacture, so that the profitability is high.
Now, in order to make sure that this upcoming sub-compact SUV becomes a major hit in the country, Honda has to make sure that it can offer multiple engine options, a feature-loaded cabin, strong safety packages, and aggressive pricing. This is because most of its rivals already offer these.
Currently, the best-selling SUV in the sub-compact SUV segment is the Tata Nexon, which last month in April achieved total sales of 18,126 units. It also had a market share of 15.2 percent in its segment. The second one on the list was the Maruti Suzuki Brezza, with 14,124 units sold and a share of 11.9 percent. Meanwhile, the third position was taken by the newly updated Hyundai Venue facelift, with 12,420 units sold.
It achieved massive growth on a year-on-year basis of 56 percent, and its market share was 10.4 percent. The Kia Sonet also saw decent sales with 10,537 units and had a market share of 8.8 percent. Next in the lineup were the Mahindra XUV 3XO with 7,517 units, the Skoda Kylaq with 4,089 units sold, and lastly the Kia Syros with 554 sales.
In addition to the sub-4m SUV, Honda has also revealed that it will be launching a new compact SUV after 2028. This SUV will most likely be replacing the Honda Elevate which has not been able to match the market dominance of the Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Maruti Suzuki Victoris, Grand Vitara, Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder.
Currently Honda has not announced any new details about this SUV. However, we believe that to make this SUV competitive Honda will be offering it with multiple powertrain options such as a new 1.5-litre turbo petrol, strong hybrid and electric powertrains. It will also become more feature loaded unlike the Elevate which many feel lacks a lot of features which its rivals have to offer.