HCPI President: Honda Brio to make Philippine debut this year

Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI) president Toshio Kuwahara revealed that the Brio subcompact will come to the Philippines on the second half of this year.

In his closing remarks at the launch of the 2014 Honda City at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, Kuwahara said the Brio will be among the new models that the Japanese car maker will launch in the country soon. The statement was accompanied by pictures of the hatchback Brio in a slideshow.

HCPI executives relayed to us that the Brio is tentatively targeted for a Q3 release sometime between August and September.

But Kuwahara told AutoIndustriya.com in an interview that the variants HCPI will bring in have not yet been finalized. He also said the Brio coming to the country will have a 1.3-liter engine and will be made in Thailand.

The Brio has been on sale in India, Thailand and Indonesia since 2011, either as a five-door hatchback or as a four-door sedan (known as the Amaze). The subcompact hatchback received a facelift in July of last year.

Only the Indonesian Brio is available with a 1.3-liter, four-cylinder i-VTEC engine producing 100 PS and 127 Nm of torque. All other Brios and the Amaze have a 1.2-liter, four-cylinder i-VTEC engine with 88 PS and 109 Nm of torque.

Both engines can be mated to a 5-speed manual, a 5-speed automatic or a continuously variable transmission.

This development confirms an earlier report we made in July of last year. The model is expected to slot below the Jazz and the City.