Honda Stops Jazz Production in India Temporarily from March

Japanese carmaker, Honda has stopped production and selling of its premium hatchback Jazz in India by March. However those customers who have already booked it will get their cars.



History:
The Honda Jazz was launched in India in 2009. Honda Jazz is one of the favorite hatchbacks of small car lovers. The very first introduced jazz comes with a high price tag. This made the customers to stay away. So Honda introduced an updated version of Jazz with a lower price-tag, which was a huge success. The car is currently available in India at a price range of Rs 5.99 lakh to Rs 6.56 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). Till date since launch, Honda Car India Limited (HCIL) has sold a total of 22,985 units of the Jazz in India.


Why Honda Jazz discontinues?
One of the major reason that Honda Jazz has stopped production is that, Jazz is to make way for the Honda Amaze. The Honda Amaze will be launched in Indian market by April, is expects to be a volume generator for Honda.

An interesting reason that forced Honda to stop production of Jazz is there. For the last few months Jazz has been sold at an average of about 400 cars per month. But the demand was much high than the production. This created a long waiting list of Jazz customers. The long queue started to irritate the customers, which also forced Honda to stop Jazz's production.

Besides this reasons, Honda is rumoured that it is losing money on the cut-price Jazz. So to minimize the lose Honda controlled Jazz's production.



Speaking about the Honda's plan to stop production of Jazz, the official said, "The launch of new models in 2013 has resulted in changes to our production mix at our Greater Noida plant. Depending on the market response to the new models, we will keep flexibility to make the changes in line with the demand."

But the Jazz will come back with a bang with the next-generation model that is still under development. The all-new Jazz will be produced locally and the vehicle will have much higher local content than before to keep the cost low. The new Jazz will feature the same 1.5 litre i-DTEC diesel engine that will also power Amaze. The new Jazz will be built on the same platform as the next-generation Honda City. The Honda Jazz is expected to be launch in the mid of 2014 after the launch of Honda City.



Currently, any car with a petrol engine capacity under 1,200 cc or diesel engine under 1,500 cc, but length shorter than four meters, attract an excise duty of 12 per cent. The entry level sedan qualifies for the excise duty benefit, enjoyed by small cars in India. The new Honda Amaze will be available in both petrol and diesel variant. The first diesel model Amaze will reach India by April. The vehicle will compete with Maruti Suzuki's Swift Dzire.