Honda to start producing Asia car in Indonesia

By Russell Williamson

Honda will begin building its new Honda City in Indonesia in about September this year.

The car will be built alongside Honda's existing Civic and Accord models by PT Prospect Motor and sold through PT Imora Motor's distribution network.

The City, a four-door sedan slightly smaller than the Civic, has been developed by Honda specifically to meet the needs of the Asian region.

Although the company has yet to announce pricing, Honda will be trying hard to introduce the car at a price to compete with the national Timor car.

In Thailand, where the car was launched last month, it sells for about US$15.000, but this is with 70 percent local Thai content.

However, Honda has already said that it plans to use components manufactured in Indonesia for its cars built in Thailand and vice versa.

Under the ASEAN Brand-to-Brand Complementation Scheme, this would allow Honda in Indonesia to import components from Thailand and use them as local content to reduce tariffs, thereby helping it to achieve its low-price target.

Speaking at the launch of the car in Thailand, the president and CEO of Honda Motor Co, Nobuhiko Kawamoto, said the Honda City was "the first in the world designed and developed to meet the needs of customers in Thailand and Asia".

Nobuhiko also announced the opening of a new production facility in Thailand and the establishment of a regional head office in Bangkok to look after all ASEAN markets.

He said this was part of Honda's strategy of "Globalization through Localization", which was a philosophy designed to respect the diversity of the region and ensure the local community reaps the benefits of a growing automotive industry.

"Together, these events symbolize the growing relationship between Honda and our customers and the local communities in Thailand and other Asian countries," Nobuhiko said.

He said Honda's localization strategy in the growing Asian markets had now progressed from local production to the next logical step, the development of a new model for the region.

In designing the car, Honda's engineers have taken the human element as the most important and largely structured the car around that.

Consequently, despite the City's small exterior dimensions (1,454mm wide and 4,225mm long), it can comfortably seat four adults and has a trunk with a luggage capacity of 385 liters.

The interior of the car is well laid out with all controls easy to operate. In Thailand, three model variants are offered, with the mid-range EXi and top-of-the-range LXi featuring power steering, power windows and power central locking.

The air-conditioning system, standard in the LXi, has been designed specifically to deal with the high temperatures and humidity of Southeast Asia, with large outlets inside the car and separate ducts for the air conditioner and the demister.

The car also features green glass to reduce direct sunlight, thereby keeping the cabin temperature lower.

The City is powered by a 1.3-liter four-cylinder 16-valve engine which is light and fuel efficient. Maximum power is 70kW at 6400rpm with a maximum torque figure of 120Nm at 4700rpm.

The electronic fuel injection system is a modified version of that found in the Civic and has been designed to run on the petrol octane ratings available in the region.

In Thailand, the City is offered with either a five-speed manual transmission or a four-speed automatic transmission, both also derived from the latest-generation Civic.

The monocoque body is highly rigid for both safety reasons and to ensure high levels of stability and ride comfort and low levels of noise vibration and harshness.

A simple independent strut-type suspension has been employed to cope with both rough roads and for easy repair. This system also allows a lower suspension tower enabling a lower front bonnet height for improved visibility and less intrusion into the trunk space in the rear.

Braking power comes from power-assisted front ventilated discs and rear drums which are actuated by low-input pedal pressure for stop-start driving conditions.

While the designers set out to engineer a car that was relatively cheap to build, it was also necessary to make it relatively easy and cheap to repair.

As such, the Honda City features a number of unique properties to aid its repairability.

Both front and rear bumpers are in three sections, so, in a crash, the whole bumper does not have to be replaced.

Also, in response to the high incidence of flooding in the region, the car's electronic control unit is positioned high on the chassis to eliminate the possibility of immersion in water, while the chassis is sealed to minimize water intrusion and extend its durability.