Honda’s oil burner:
Honda never loved to hear diesel clatter, its attitude to diesel engines used to be that they were crude, noisy, dirty, smelly and altogether unworthy of being mentioned in polite society. But when it started losing out to oil-burning rivals from Toyota, Nissan and Land Rover. It introspected itself and came up with its first in house produced diesel in 2003. Kenichi Naghiro the VTEC expert who “hated dirty smelly, noisy diesels.” designed a revolutionary quiet, smooth and clean diesel engine. The result is the stunning 2.2 liter i-CTDi (intelligent Common Rail Turbocharged Direct Injection) engine. Honda’s first diesel (I-CTDI) powered the Accord sedan and it was unusually quiet and responsive. The diesel won many awards across europe and even challenged the success of well known i-VTEC engine (which powers the indian CR-V).Honda expanded the line-up of diesel models with the launch of CR-V and FR-V diesel two years back. But all these models are available only in Europe not even in United States and Japan.
CR-V diesel
European customers and indian customers are somewhat alike that’s why Hyundai is producing i10 here. As increasing number of Indian customers gets attracted by diesel engines, Honda India wishes to bring the diesel CR-V here. Honda CR-V has been the market leader in its segment since its debut but as Chevrolet Captiva poaches some CR-V customers with its modern common rail engine and Hyundai’s Santa Fe is around the corner. Honda wants to secure his number one spot and to give the Indian customers more Honda-ness. The award winning iCTDI diesel engine will get under the hood of CR-V and starts making magic soon. Honda is currently testing the CR-V diesel in India.
the iCTDI magic:
The 2.2-litre, 16-valve, twin-cam, direct-injection, iCTDI diesel engine produces 138bhp of maximum power at 4000 rpm and an impressive peak torque of 350Nm at 2000rpm. Though the CR-V is designed for ‘grass and gravel’ rather than hardcore mud-plugging this diesel engine will make you fly off the pants. A six-speed manual gearbox which is calibrated to make the most of the engine’s torque characteristics will be a standard-fit. The engine is said to be more frugal and it is sure that Honda is going to set the fuel efficiency standards to a new level with the CR-V diesel. (Fuel efficiency/mileage is said to be in the range of 15kpl) The injection system operates at up to 1.6 bar and a pilot injection or “pre-squirt” prior to the main injection phase lowers the combustion noise. Complementing with this would be sound absorption systems which confuses the driver whether its a diesel or petrol. I wish, in the line of cutting the cost, Honda should not remove when CR-V diesel comes to India.
Price:
Honda would cut some of the luxury features such as sunroof to make the diesel CR-V competitive with the likes of Captiva. But the cut in the feature list may not be severe. Few months back we reported you that Honda is planning to assemble CR-V’s india that will cut the cost significantly because of the difference in the import duty (for CBU -114% and CKD- 60%). By the time CR-V diesel hits the showroom Honda might start assembling CR-V in India.