Honda to bring Jazz-based crossover to India in 2017; new-gen Brio, Amaze also in the offing

Betting big on the Indian market, Japanese auto-maker Honda cars is gearing up for a slew of launches in the market over the next two years, according to a latest report. As reported by Livemint, Honda, which is currently working on new models to boost the sales in the competitive Indian market, would bring a crossover based on the Jazz premium hatchback soon.

The Jazz-based crossover, codenamed 2FM, is expected to be out by 2017. Although the details of this new crossover from Honda are not yet out, rumours indicate that the model could borrow styling elements from the Jazz. The new crossover is expected to carry over the same engines of the Jazz hatchback. It packs the 1.2-litre i-VTEC petrol and 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel engines. While the petrol version can generate power of 90bhp with a torque of 110Nm at 4,800rpm, the latter can pump in 100bhp of power and 200Nm torque.

In India, the Jazz crossover is likely to be pitted against Hyundai i20 Active, Fiat Avventura and Volkswagen Cross Polo. It was reported earlier that the testing of this new Jazz crossover is already underway.

Honda Jazz, which made its market debut in India in June 2015, had a tremendous journey in the country till it started losing out to its rival -- the Baleno -- from the house of country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki. Honda sold 3,683 units of premium hatchback Jazz in March, while the Baleno sales stood at 6236 units during the same period.

The report also says that besides the 2FM, a new generation Brio compact car and Amaze sedan, codenamed 2UA and 2UB, respectively, are also in the work.

Meanwhile, Honda is expected to launch the new generation Accord and CR-V in the 2018-19 fiscal.