Honda Amaze likely to escort Brio in South Africa
The Brio Amaze has just drifted into Thailand, and in 2013, it will drop anchor in India and Indonesia.
South African motoring website BDLive writes that the Brio Amaze is also on the cards for local inception in the following years. Honda South Africa will hire the services of the Amaze and Brio to challenge the Etios and Liva. These cars, together with the Figo, are all made in India.
Honda launched the India-made Brio is South Africa earlier this month with the 1.2L petrol motor paired to 5-speed manual and automatic transmissions. The Brio has to contend with the i10 (another Indian make), Liva and Picanto, and the sedan would compete mainly with the old VW Polo sedan, Manza and Etios.
Honda shipped a consignment of 390 cars to South Africa and plan to ship out 1,600 units by March 2013. Honda is also studying the Southern African Development Community countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius and Seychelles to ramp up export market volumes. Due to the favorable exchange rate, good pricing is easy to arrive at for Indian made cars in Africa.
The specifications of the Amaze leaving for South Africa may not vary. The 1.2 litre i-VTEC petrol engine could make 90 PS, and as South African Brio customers are accustomed to, driven via a 5-speed manual transmission or 5-speed automatic transmission.
The Brio would spawn a MPV model in 2014 with its crossbow pointed at the Ertiga. Would that be sold in South Africa as well? Guess we'll have to wait and see.
