More Premium 'City' for Home - Honda to Launch Grace Hybrid in Japan!

Honda is launching its City sedan in the home market - Japan christened as ‘Grace’ , dressed in a premium package compared to one we and the neighbouring developing markets are getting. The City is produced in India along with Malaysia and Thailand and is offered with 1.5L i-VTEC petrol along with 1.5 i-DTEc diesel but in ‘land of rising sun’ its getting a Hybrid powertrain. 

Starting with the changes first, though the overall profile is carbon copy compared to ours but front facade gets elusive changes. Moreover, the major alterations to exteriors are in lighting; headlamps gets twin-LED lamps while rear gets LED tail lamps with clear lens side blinks. Grace also features machined alloys, unlike ours these alloys are also offered in neighbouring markets like Thailand. On the inside, Grace gets similar layout but offers a touch screen infotainment system compared to ours non-touch smaller unit. The instrumentation cluster is updated for the hybrid info along with updated gearshift knob. 

Honda did not reveal the powertrain info of the Grace sedan but as it is getting a hybrid powertrain; it is most likely the 1.5 liter hybrid mated to automaker's Intelligent Dual-Clutch Drive transmission. The expected outputs are close to 135 hp of max power and nearly 170 Nm of peak torque; power is extracted through the coupling of an engine and a high output electric motor. The Grace is launching in Japan on December 1, 2014.