Manufacturer Honda Motor Company Class City car | Production 2011–present Body style 5-door hatchback | |
 | ||
Assembly India: Gurgaon (Honda India)
Thailand: Ayutthaya (Honda Ayutthaya Plant)
Indonesia: Karawang (Honda Prospect Motor) Layout Front-engine, front-wheel-drive | ||
The Honda Brio (Japanese: ホンダ・ブリオ, Honda Burio) is a city car produced by Honda and sold in India, Thailand, South Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines. The car was introduced in 2011.
Contents
Name
The name Brio means vivacity or verve in Italian. In Indonesia, Brio has an additional Indonesia-inspired name for the country's LCGC (Low Cost Green Car) program. The name Satya (Sanskrit: true, genuine, sincere or faithful) is used, with added local distributor's name combined as "Honda Prospect Motor Brio Satya" as its official LCGC name.
History
The Brio prototype was first shown at 2010 Thailand International Motor Show. The car is developed to position in a class below Fit/Jazz for emerging markets. The initial markets were Thailand and India.
Specifications
The Brio is powered by either a four-cylinder, 1.2 L (73 cu in) L12B i-VTEC gasoline engine delivering 88 PS (64.7 kW; 86.8 bhp) or 1.3 L (79 cu in) L13A i-VTEC delivering 100 PS (73.5 kW; 98.6 bhp) for the Indonesian market until 2016. It is available with either a 5-speed manual, 5-speed automatic or a continuously variable transmission. The car is certified to deliver a combined mileage of 19.4 km/L (55 mpg‑imp; 46 mpg‑US) and 16.5 km/L (47 mpg‑imp; 39 mpg‑US) with manual and automatic transmission respectively on the Indian cycle.
Safety
Safety equipment includes dual front airbags, anti-lock braking system, electronic brakeforce distribution and front pretensioner seat belts. The driver's side airbag feature multi-stage inflation. The front body is designed to absorb impact energy for better pedestrian protection.
The cars's front wheels have disc brakes and the rear wheels have drum type brakes. The progressive braking prevents sudden jerks.
Thailand
In Thailand, the Brio was launched in March 2011.
India
In India, the Brio is assembled for the South Asian market by the company's subsidiary, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI), at its production facilities in Greater Noida. Over 80% of its parts are sourced from Indian suppliers. The Rajasthan factory also exports Brio parts to Thailand. The Brio in India is offered in V, VX and VX BL trims.
Indonesia
Honda has started the assembly of Brio in Indonesia since August 2012 to fulfill the local demand. Before the Indonesian LCGC program was launched, the Brio used a 1.3 L (79 cu in) L13Z i-VTEC engine instead of 1.2 L (73 cu in) L12B i-VTEC one. This engine was used until 2016.
In September 2013, when the LCGC program had launched, the Brio was offered in 6 trims: Satya A, Satya S, Satya E, S, E, which were made locally and available with a 1.2-liter engine, and Sports, which was imported from Thailand and available with a 1.3-liter engine. All Satya variants were initially only available with a manual transmission, while S and E (without Satya badge) were only available with an automatic transmission. The Sports trim was available in both manual and automatic transmissions. Currently, the Satya E is available with CVT. In 2015, Honda Brio Satya was the third best selling LCGC.
Philippines
The Brio was launched in the Philippines at the Philippine International Motor Show in September 2014.
South Africa
The Brio was launched in South Africa in December 2012.
2016 update
The Indonesian-spec Brio was updated on 7 April 2016 at the 2016 Indonesia International Motor Show. This update includes a new grille, tail lamps, dashboard design, the use of continuous variable transmission, replacing the 5-speed automatic one, and also introduced the new trim line, RS, which replaced Sports as the top-level trim.
As of April 2016, the Indonesian market Brio is available in 3 trims, which are all now powered by a 1.2-liter engine. The new trim level consists of Satya S, Satya E, and RS. The Satya S trim is only available with a manual transmission.
Sales
The Brio's planned launch in India was delayed from early 2011 due to the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. It was finally launched in September 2011, just ahead of the festive season, with a starting price of ₹395,000. It joined the Jazz in Honda's hatchback subcompact range for India. In the Indian market, it competes against Maruti Suzuki's Swift and Ritz, Hyundai's i10, Ford's Figo, Nissan's Micra and Toyota's Etios Liva.
The sales took a hit again when Honda's Thailand plant had to shut down due to the massive Bangkok floods. Critical components for the Brio come from Thailand and hence its Indian production stopped for more than a month, resuming only on 15th of February 2012.
In Indonesia, the non-LCGC Brio was sold at 9,853 units in the first 10 months of 2014, while the LCGC Brio Satya was sold at 21,959 units. From January to August 2016, the Brio Satya was sold at 20,308 units, with 5,812 units sold in August.
Sedan
The Brio is also available in the sedan form, dubbed as Amaze.
MPV
The Mobilio is the MPV variation of the Brio.
SUV
The BR-V is the SUV variation of the Brio.
Recall
In May 2014, Honda issued a recall of about 32,000 Brio and Amaze cars in India due to a possible mis-assembly of the proportioning valve. This recall is limited to models which are not fitted with ABS.