After the launch of the latest iteration of its highly successful luxury saloon, the Accord, Honda now say that the much awaited hatchback, the Jazz will only come by the end of the year 2009. Earlier reports suggested the car might come by the end of the year 2008. The new Jazz will be manufactured at Honda’s new upcoming plant at Takapura in Rajasthan. The plant being made at an investment of Rs. 1000 crores will be fully operational only by the end of the next year, though the engine components and stamping would begin by september this year. The full assembly unit will take atleast half a year to complete, indicated top officials of the company.

Honda has already launched Jazz in Europe, North America, Latin America and some parts of Asia including Japan, Malaysia, China, Singapoer and Thailand.

The Jazz won’t be launched in the year 2008 mainly because the company wants to ensure high localisation to keep the price competitve. The b+ segment is dominated currently by the Maruti Swift and will see a lot of activity in the next 2 year with impending launches from Fiat Grand Punto, the new all Indica from Tata, i20 from hyundai apart from the recent launches like Skoda’s Fabia.

“In all our cars, we are looking for a high level of localisation. That is the case with Jazz too. Our objective is 70-80 per cent localisation,” Said Mr Masahiro Takedagawa, President and CEO of Honda Siel India.

The company also wants to go green in the Indian market and will launch the Civic hybrid, the reponse to which will pave way for similar such launches in the future from Honda. “Let’s see what the response to Civic Hybrid is. And then we will decide on other varieties. We will go step by step,” he said. Honda has begun limited marketing of its hydrogen fuel cell-run FCX Clarity in US and Japan. The Civic hybrid will be imported as a CBU (completely built unit) and hence wont come cheap. With an import duty of almost 104 percent, the car will cost a minimum of 20 lakh rupees.

The petrol-eletric Civic hybrid will be 60%  more fuel efficient than its existing variants and will have the best fuel efficiency in its segment along with lowest emission compared to any car in the market.“Civic Hybrid is the first hybrid car that is commercially available in India. We want to spread the message of green cars through this model. All our 80 dealer shops will showcase a model of Civic Hybrid to familiarise people with the car,” Mr Masahiro Takedagawa, President and CEO of Honda Siel India said.

The company is serious about its hybrid technology plans in India. “We have worked closely with Automotive Research Association of India to set hybrid regulations in the country,” he said.

Although the company refused to divulge any details about its diesel plans, we are pretty sure that the CRV with the famed Honda 2.2 i-CTDI will be coming soon, especially when Captiva is selling well and is the only diesel in its segment. The test mules have been spotted in Noida. Honda is testing the engine with local fuel for any problems before its launched commercially.