Honda has given its legacy sedan a makeover with a bunch of new features thrown in for good measure. Does it pass the vibe check to claim a larger piece of the pie?
Pies are interesting. The ingredients vary, and so does the context. A huge and sweet dessert is welcome, but a graph in a presentation with a key slice becoming smaller has the opposite effect. When we got to Bengaluru, it was just as warm as in Pune, with the occasional welcome breeze, and there were some fresh pies on the hotel restaurant display. Some traditional, some unconventional and artistic. The new Honda City, then, was what we’d be having a go at.
Truth be told, it was back in 2022 that I was in Bengaluru to drive the first-ever hybrid City that was sold in India, and the fact that we would be driving the e:HEV hybrid again felt like something coming full circle. Except, little has changed.
The new City gets a bold new face with a narrow light-bar connecting the new headlights and a not-so-gaping grille as before. The tail-light clusters also get a clear-lens treatment. It looks sharp, I’ll give it that. It’s also longer—length is up 20 millimetres over the last version, taking it up to 4,594 millimetres and making it the longest in the segment. The new 16-inch diamond-cut wheels are also a huge part of the appeal, and the black and silver two-tone finish does indeed go well with the new shade of Crystal Black Pearl.
Honda has introduced new trims with the new City, with the VX dropped in favour of a ZX and a new ZX+. The hybrid is only available in the new top ZX+ trim and costs Rs 21 lakh (ex-showroom). The interior has been spruced up with a two-tone ivory and black upholstery, complemented by a cubic design trim and ambient lighting. The space is good. The seats feel comfortable and now also feature ventilation. The centrepiece is the new 10.1-inch touchscreen with integrated wireless smartphone connectivity. It also shows the feed from the new 360° camera and from the LaneAssist blind-spot camera as well. However, the centre screen is not particularly well-integrated, positioned at a rather upward angle and is dead centre, not facing the driver, so daytime visibility on the move has been compromised to some extent. However, the visibility seems okay at some angles and after dark.
Honda Sensing is what the suite of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) is called, and it is now offered on the i-VTEC petrol models as well. It comes just above the base model in the “V” trim. The suite includes the collision mitigation braking system, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, road departure mitigation system, lead car departure notification system, and auto high-beam. As with the previous City Hybrid, the suite is still offered, albeit with some enhancements. The new Low Speed Follow (LSF) system, restricted to the e:HEV model, complements the adaptive cruise control and enables stop-and-go functionality, making it more usable on the highway as well as in the city. Speaking of the drive, let’s get to it.
The City e:HEV drives just as it did before. And that’s all right. The electric motor delivers its peak torque instantaneously and without fuss, making for easy drivability. The engine is a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol unit running on the Atkinson cycle for enhanced efficiency. The 80-kW motor serves up 253 Nm of electric torque—comparable to a 2.5-litre nat-asp V6—and does the bulk of the driving. The engine plays the role of a generator for the most part, but can drive the wheels at a certain speed via a wet clutch set-up, which, to me, seems like a 1:1 ratio equivalent of many fifth or sixth gears, but you get the picture, right?
What that does is help with fuel efficiency big-time. Honda claims 27.26 kilometres to the litre. Over the 130-odd kilometres we drove around that morning, I managed to see a high of 27.30 km/l; yes, slightly more than the claimed figure. So, yes, efficiency is definitely a strong point. However, the driving style does matter and being judicious and feathery with one’s right foot is an all-important factor.
Efficiency is just one of the many things to consider. The City is spacious. It’s comfortable. On the downside, the steering feel is sort of vague and not responsive enough to be engaging. The response to changes in direction is fine, although it is not exactly sharp or precise. It’s meant for more relaxed driving styles, and that’s where it begins to show its strengths. The ride quality is fine. The suspension is sorted, and the City holds its line when pushed, even rushed, into a corner; although it seems like it doesn’t like doing the latter. The thing is, the engine is quite audible when it kicks in and more so when the accelerator is prodded. That points to insufficient sound-deadening and does take a few refinement points away.
As a family car, the City makes sense. Honda’s legendary reliability and fuel efficiency are hallmarks that are in its favour as well. It must be said that the City’s numbers aren’t what they used to be. Looking back at sales data, from a one-year high of nearly 1,000 units in December 2025 to a low of less than 200 units in April 2026, the City definitely needed a pick-me-up, and this update could be just it.
Honda has an excitement about it that we haven’t felt in a while. The new ZR-V hybrid SUV is around the corner. A battery electric vehicle (BEV) will follow that. A new compact SUV for the sub-four-metre space will also arrive to fill the void left by the WR-V. And there is some buzz of an Elevate hybrid and not full-electric. Personally, I believe Honda should use the import quota, taking advantage of the FTAs, and bring in about 100 units of the S660, NBOX, and even the Pilot. I think the key is to tap into the global portfolio and just dare to do things differently. Some things just click, but we’ll never know until we go ahead and do them.
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
Need to Know – Honda City e:HEV ZX+
Price: Rs 21 lakh (ex-showroom)
Engine: 1,498-cc, in-line four, Atkinson-cycle petrol
Max Power (Engine): 100 hp @ 5,600-6,400 rpm
Max Torque (Engine): 131 Nm @ 4,500-5,000 rpm
Battery Pack: 172.8-volt, lithium-ion
Electric Motor: 80-kW, permanent magnet, AC synchronous
Max Power (E-Motor): 109 hp @ 3,500 rpm
Max Torque (E-Motor): 253 Nm @ 0-3,000 rpm
Peak Output: 126 hp
Transmission: Electrically-coupled continuously variable transmission (CVT) with engine-linked wet multi-plate clutch, front-wheel drive
Weight: 1,294 kg
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