Honda Mobilio to focus on commercial fleet segment in India: Report

The Honda Mobilio MPV, which is a slow-selling model of the Japanese car-maker's Indian portfolio, is all set to get a new lease of life in the commercial fleet segment. The Mobilio MPV, launched in 2014, failed to attract buyers and its sales never took off. Now, with the launch of the Honda BR-V SUV in the similar price range, it will be difficult for the Mobilio to find takers. The shift of focus to the taxi segment has reportedly been initiated with this in consideration.

A report in Overdrive has quoted Jnaneswar Sen, vice-president of marketing and sales at Honda Cars India Limited as saying that there are no plans of discontinuing production of the Mobilio. "The commercial fleet segment is much bigger. Honda currently doesn't have a strong presence in the fleet operator business because of its brand image. Even though we sell cars in the commercial segment, we haven't promoted it sufficiently, which will now change as we plan to be aggressive in that segment with the Mobilio," he told the publication.

Honda sold only 374 unit of the Mobilio in April 2016. The numbers for March, February and January were 610, 226 and 441, respectively. This, in comparison to the sales of other models Honda such as the City and the Amaze, is far lower.

Honda is expected to trim some of the features of the Mobilio before boosting sales in the commercial segment, which should help it cut price. Under the hood, Honda Mobilio packs a 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel engine or a 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol engine. The diesel engine will be the favourite for the commercial fleet segment, and delivers 99bhp at 3,600rpm and maximum torque of 200Nm at 1,750rpm mated to five-speed manual transmission.