Ahead of Malaysia? 2023 Honda City facelift to be launched in Thailand and Vietnam in July
CY Foong · Jun 19, 2023 12:35 PM
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The updated 2023 Honda City facelift made its global debut in India back in March and is due to enter the Malaysian market sometime later this year. However, Malaysia won’t be the debut market for the City facelift in Southeast Asia rather, either Thailand or Vietnam will see the launch of the new City first.
According to Autolife Thailand, the updated City is rumoured to be launched in early July. Overall, the upcoming Thai-spec City could share the same new features and trims shown in the Indian-spec City including a fresh honeycomb front grille design, new front and rear bumpers, and new alloy wheels.
The only difference between the refreshed City for Thailand and India is the petrol powertrain on the former market. Instead of a naturally-aspirated 1.5-litre DOHC i-VTEC (121 PS/145 Nm), the petrol-powered Thai-spec City has a turbocharged 1.0-litre 3-cylinder (122 PS/173 Nm) to comply with the Kingdom’s Eco Car regulations.
Both the 3-pot naturally aspirated i-VTEC unit and the 1.5-litre 4-cylinder e:HEV (combined 126 PS/253 Nm) hybrid engine will be carried over in Thailand for the updated City.
Meanwhile, to the east of Thailand, Honda Vietnam has recently uploaded a teaser of the new City on social media with a launch date. Expected to debut in Vietnam on 4-July 2023, the revamped City will also have similar upgrades to the Indian-market model.
However, if based on the current pre-facelift model, the Vietnamese-spec City is only offered with a 1.5-litre petrol engine. Perhaps a hybrid variant could be introduced with the updated City in the country as Honda focuses on offering electrified models in all markets.
Vietnam could see the left-hand drive (LHD) market debut of the refreshed Honda City but will it also be the first market in ASEAN to see the introduction of the new City? Thailand has always been the Honda City’s base ever since the first model was introduced more than 25 years ago.
Still, the City has also been impressing Vietnamese buyers as it overtook the Toyota Vios to become the country’s best-selling B-segment sedan.
Over in Malaysia, we received info that the new City will offer Honda Sensing as standard across all variants. It’s a major bump compared to the pre-facelift City which only offers ADAS on its two highest variants, V Sensing and the RS e:HEV.
As it might be offered with Honda Sensing as standard across the range, expect a price bump for the new City when it gets launched here. Currently, the outgoing pre-facelift City is still on sale with prices as such:
Traded advertising for a career that fits his passion for cars. Enjoys spotting cars during his free time and has a soft spot for Japanese Kei cars but drives a thirsty manual sedan.