Out of all the Honda Civic sold in the initial month of its launch, 88% of it were the petrol variants. The more powerful, more refined petrol engine is the pick of the lot in the Civic.
The Honda Civic made a great comeback with the new-gen Civic being launched in March, this year. Just in the first month itself, the Honda Civic recorded a sales of 2,291 units, including both petrol and diesel iterations. That’s almost equal to what the other cars in the segment had been selling during the entire past year.
However, what’s more interesting is that, even in this premium executive sedan segment, it the Honda Civic petrol that managed significantly more sales than the diesel one. Out of the 2,291 units of the Civic sold, 2,006 of them were the Honda Civic petrol and the just the remaining 285 units of the Civic were diesel powered. That’s a massive 88% of the buyers showing preference towards petrol.
There are several reasons for that. Firstly, the price difference between petrol and diesel is getting narrower by the day. Furthermore, the petrol variants are more affordable and allows for a cheaper entry point in the segment. Also, the Honda Civic petrol gets the option of an automatic gearbox which the diesel variant does not get. The diesel only comes with a manual gearbox.
The Honda Civic is powered by a 1.8L, petrol engine which produces 141 bhp. The diesel engine on the other hand is 1.6L unit which produces 120 bhp. Not only is the petrol engine more poweful, but Honda petrol engines are quite more refined than their diesel counterparts.
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As a matter of fact, petrol is more favored over diesel all across the entire segment. The other cars in this segment include the Toyota Corolla, the Hyundai Elantra and the Skoda Octavia. In the financial year 18-19, Toyota sold 2,783 units of the Corolla, out of which 84% were petrol and only the remaining 16% were diesel.
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Even for Skoda Octavia which sold 2,720 units in the financial year 18-19, 64% of the Octavias sold were petrol while 36% were diesel. As for the Hyundai Elantra which sold 1,1174 units, 60% of them were petrol while 40% were diesel. With the upcoming BS-VI norms, the price difference between petrol and diesel will narrow down further as diesel cars will get more expensive. Chances are we are going to see this trend of petrol being preferred over diesel for some time to come now.
