New Honda SUV to wear HR-V badge in Australia

Honda has unveiled a new SUV based on the popular Jazz city car, expected to go on sale in Australia late next year and face off against the Nissan Juke, Peugeot 2008, Holden Trax and coming Ford EcoSport.

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The Honda Vezel -- as the car at Tokyo motor show is called, although it may not keep that name here -- is the showroom-ready version of the Urban SUV concept from Detroit motor show earlier this year.

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Honda says the baby crossover combines the "dynamic qualities of an SUV" with the "functionality of a minivan" and the "elegance of a coupe". The SUV body features sharp character sculpting and the streamlined roofline of a coupe, with the interior aiming

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Honda has confirmed that its new Jazz-based SUV will wear HR-V badges when it arrives locally in early 2015. The new model is known as the Vezel in its native Japan, where it went on sale late last year, and will be the first sub-CR-V, HR-V-badged model to be sold locally since 2001.

Introduced in 1999, the first generation HR-V joined the Daihatsu Terios and Mitsubishi Pajero iO in creating the tiny SUV segment, long before the current resurgence of the segment that so far includes the Nissan Juke, Holden Trax, Ford EcoSport and Peugeot 2008.

“It is fitting that the new small SUV will take the HR-V moniker as Honda enters the country’s fastest growing segment with a red-hot competitor. The HR-V is built on the new Jazz platform and will offer sporty, versatile characteristics. It will provide customers with a wider choice in the SUV market, complementing Honda’s medium SUV offering; the popular CR-V,” Honda Australia Director Stephen Collins says.

The new model is expected to come with petrol and diesel drivetrains for Australia, with the hybrid version available in Japan unlikely.

Nonetheless, a turbodiesel option would join only the Peugeot 2008 in offering such an engine in the HR-V’s segment, and form part of Honda’s push to improve its brand presence in rural and provincial Australia.

The new HR-V has been developed alongside the new City sedan and Jazz light hatch, which will appear next month and later this year respectively.

This reporter is on Twitter: @Mal_Flynn

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