The Honda Brio hatchback’s official launch in India may have been delayed however that doesn’t affect its Thailand launch. The car was unveiled in Thailand last night amidst grand show and pomp. The good thing is that by the looks of it, almost all the design cues from the concept have been retained in the production version. The jazzy alloy wheels have been excluded and the car somewhat looks more rounded than the radical concept version. As in India, the nomenclature of variants go, the same goes for the Thai version also. There are only two variants namely the S and V. while the former gets a manual gear box, a 5 speed one, the latter gets a CVT option. The engine is the same unit as found on the Indian Honda Jazz. The 1.2 liter motor develops 90 Bhp of peak power at 6000 rpm whereas the peak torque of 11.21 kgm is generated at 4800 rpm. It is very likely that for India, this figures may come down and the Brio would develop close to 10 Bhp less.
The spacious interiors of the concept car have been retained and Honda has made the best utilization of the 2345 mm wheelbase and have given this car comfortable seating for 5. Speaking of the interiors, the Thailand market Honda Brio boasts of having an adjustable steering column, an Indian Honda City like music system without CD player but with USB and AUX input, electronic power steering and also engine immobilizer with security alarm. On the exteriors, the base version gets 14 inch steel wheels whereas the top end one gets alloys. There is a LED tail lamp with an inbuilt rear spoiler as also halogen head lamps. On the safety front, there is dual air bags, EBD and ABS. It however remains to be seen how many of these features Honda is ready to offer to the Indian customers, especially considering the targeted ex-show room price of Rs 5 lakhs. The launch date has been pushed to September 2011 for India.
