Patent plates have surfaced from an unknown and completely new hatchback from Honda. Yet we think we know what Honda will add to its international model range in the foreseeable future.
These three patent drawings show a completely new model from Honda, a compact hatchback that does not look like it is a full-fledged C-segmenter. That also seems to be true. At the end of November Honda presented a completely new generation of the City in Thailand. The muzzle, the doors and the windows of this hatchback are completely in line with those of that relatively compact sedan and that means that we are probably dealing with a new City-based model here.
The arrival of the new City was not really a surprise. Previous generations of the sedan shared their technical basis with the Honda Jazz and a new generation of that car was recently presented with a brand new platform. That also means that the City, which in other markets is again called Ballade (South Africa), Greiz (China) or Grace (Japan), is being helped to a new generation. It is, however, noteworthy that Honda is expanding the family of Jazz-based models with a conventional five-door hatchback. Previously it was not there. Honda does have Jazz-based compact crossovers such as the HR-V, WR-V and even a liftback (Gienia) and an MPV (Freed) on the international menu. That list now seems to be expanded with this compact five-door.
Although the nose of this new Honda is identical to that of the new City, the rear is of course not. The design of the rear reminds us somewhat of that of cars such as the Mercedes-Benz A-class and Audi A1. What Honda’s newcomer will be called, is not yet known. It is likely that the hatchback will not be sold in our part of the world. Like the City, this hatchback will probably have a brand-new 1.0 under the hood, a 122-horsepowered blown three-cylinder engine that will also find a place in the new Jazz outside of Europe.