Saar: The Japanese carmaker will instead focus on its hit models – the WR-V and the City – and ensure that the upcoming Amaze clicks with its audience.

Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) has reportedly decided to skip introducing the refreshed Jazz, which broke cover last year, in India. This is a sad piece of news because the Jazz has always had a cult fan-following in India. Sure, it has never been the best equipped or the best looking (subjectivity comes in here!) hatch in its segment but it has always been the roomiest of the lot. That feat attracts a very specific kind of customer, one who puts practicality and space above everything else.

Well, all those customers will be left disappointed and we completely understand their pain. But with the Jazz, Honda never really managed to outgun or even match the sales figures its direct rivals. So, its Indian arm has decided that it will instead focus on its most popular products – the WR-V and the City – and fine tune the recipe of its upcoming compact sedan, the Amaze, to capture a more prominent market share. For the uninformed, it will be the second-generation of the Amaze that Honda showcased at the 2018 Auto Expo and will launch later this year.

The report also reads that Honda is currently working to launch the all-new Honda City in India, by 2020. It will comply with BS-VI emission norms and will be built it Honda’s Greater Noida plant. The current-gen Honda City is manufactured at the company’s Tapukara unit in Rajasthan. Honda said that its smaller products – like the current Jazz, WR-V, BR-V and the upcoming Amaze – will be built in its Rajasthan plant. The bigger products such as the City and, the forthcoming cars like the Civic and the CR-V will be manufactured or assembled in Greater Noida.

HCIL reported a year-on-year growth of 8 per cent, in domestic sales) in the fiscal year 2017-18 compared to 2016-17. That said, March 2018 saw a dip over 28 per cent in domestic sales, compared to same month last year. We can see here why Honda is jiggling things around to focus on its hit products and the upcoming models, out of which the Amaze will have all the most amount of burden to keep the sales numbers rolling.