Honda WR-V: 5 things you need to know before it breaks cover in India

Japanese carmaker Honda is pinning its hopes for a slice of the cake in India's competitive SUV segment with its upcoming Honda WR-V. This will be the first offering of Honda in the compact SUV segment and will officially break cover in March. The bookings for the new WR-V are already open across dealerships of the company, and production is underway.

Here are the top five things you need to know about the new offering of Honda — the WR-V.

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The WR-V stands for Winsome Runabout Vehicle. India will be the first country to get this global model. The launch of the WR-V in India has been scheduled for March 16.

The new WR-V from Honda underpins the platform of Jazz. It is a Jazz-based crossover with SUV styling and measures 3,999mm in length, 1,734mm in width, 1,601mm in height and has a wheelbase of 2,555 mm.

The WR-V is relatively a late entrant in its segment. It will face off against the already established leaders like Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza and Ford EcoSport in the compact SUV segment. Honda's new WR-V is also expected to face fierce competition from crossovers like Hyundai i20 Active, Toyota Etios Cross and Fiat Avventura in India.

The new compact SUV of Honda will be offered in both petrol and diesel engine options. While a 1.2-litre i-VTEC engine, which can generate power of 90bhp with a torque of 110Nm at 4,800rpm will power the petrol models, a 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel motor that can pump 100bhp of power with 200Nm torque will do the duty in the diesel version of the WR-V. The transmission in the petrol variant will be taken care of by a five-speed manual gearbox while the diesel model gets a six-speed gearbox. The diesel variant of the WR-V promises to return an ARAI claimed mileage of 25.5 kmpl. On the other hand, the petrol model is expected to clock a mileage of 17.5 kmpl.

The WR-V will feature headlight with LED Daytime Running Lamps, round foglamps, 16-inch alloy wheels, LED tail lamps, rear windshield wiper and faux skid plate for the rear bumper. On the safety front, the WR-V will house ABS with EBD and Dual airbags as standard.