IT has been the subject of feverish speculation for some time now. Japanese car major Honda’s fourth-gear run in India triggered off questions about when the company would roll out something to target India’s booming small car market.

So far, Honda’s only volume bet in India has been its City sedan, pitched securely in the mid-C segment with its Rs 7 lakh-plus positioning. Given that the City has sold around 1.5 lakh units since its launch in ’03, auto analysts felt it was only a matter of time before Honda stepped into the real volume game.

For its part, the car major remained tight-lipped about its possible small car plans. Until now, that is. Honda top brass now say that a small car foray is entirely possible and very probable and will happen in the next 3-5 years to give the company a solid foothold in India’s volume pool. But what are Honda’s options in the small car market? What kind of engine and specs will the car sport?

Auto analysts have been asking these questions for a long time. And for the first time, company officials have come up with some answers. According to M Takedagawa, president and CEO, Honda Siel, the company is “deeply studying the possibility of entering the small car segment and looking at our portfolio to see which models will suit Indian conditions.”

As for the choice of models, Honda, he says, is “looking at the coming portfolio because we don’t want to disappoint customers by bringing in something from our current portfolio which has already been around for a few years.” And that, he adds, includes, “the current Jazz/Fit.”

There’s a reason why the Jazz/Fit is of particular interest to Indian auto analysts. Built on the same platform as the current City but in a hatch avatar, the Jazz/Fit is already available in most of Asia and Europe. And in Asia, it mostly co-exists with the City in markets like Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Jazz is called Fit in the US and Japan.

What does this geographical spread mean for India? Given that Honda Siel sources most of its knocked down kits from Thailand, it makes sense that it will not choose a model for India that’s not available in that market.

To that extent, the Fit/Jazz hatch fits in perfectly. Also Honda’s strategy for India has been to pick existing global platforms. “For Honda the usual strategy is to take an existing global model and tweak it for India,” says Takedagawa. “Usually that’s what we do.”

If that’s the Honda way, there’s no reason why the company should make an exception for its small car project. Currently Honda has four major global platforms—the Accord, the Civic, the CRV and the Fit/Jazz/City. Although it does have market specific platforms, these are its four basic global model families.

There’s a reason for its geographical spread which also ties in with Honda’s small car plans. “Development of a car is very expensive and it’s amortised over large volumes,” says Takedagawa. “So whatever models we have, we like to amortise them across global volumes.”

Given that the City is already here in India, introducing its hatch avatar will make volume and cost sense for Honda. The hatch version can be tweaked to suit Indian small car specs and the engine too can be similarly tweaked.

Currently the Fit sports a 1.3 and 1.5 litre IDSA and VTec engine; the IDSA engine is the same as the City Exi and Gxi. Sources say the 1.3 litre IDSA can easily be tweaked to 1.2 litre and strapped on to the Jazz/Fit hatch. “If Indian regulations for the small car stipulates a 1.2 litre engine, we are ready to invest in that to adjust to the demands of this market,” says Takedagawa.