Honda has sold more than one lakh cars powered by its 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel engine in India, since its launch 16 months ago. The company claims that its diesel models of the Amaze, the City and the recently launched Mobilio MPV have clocked over 90 crore kilometres cumulatively.

The1.5 i-DTEC diesel engine, which is based on Honda’s Earth Dreams technology, was developed exclusively for India and its driving conditions. With an all-aluminium cylinder head joined to an open deck engine block, it is the lightest engine among engines with a similar torque configuration. Honda says the use of a lightweight crankshaft and a number of friction-reduction technologies helped reduce friction in the diesel engine to bring it down to petrol engine levels, enabling it to achieve greater cooling and fuel efficiency.

Introduced in India, in April 2013 with the Amaze sedan, the 1.5 i-DTEC diesel motor was later introduced in the fourth-generation City in January 2014 and the Mobilio last month. The claimed fuel efficiency of this engine is 26kpl in the City, 25.8kpl in the Amaze and 24.5kpl in the Mobilio.

Before the i-DTEC engine’s launch a year back, Honda did not even have a history of oil-burners in India. Since then, the engine has turned the company’s fortunes and has been very positively accepted by the Indian market, which is remarkable. The i-DTEC unit has been successful thanks to its efficiency, drivability and decent power output. The only drawback, if any, has been the poor Noise Vibration Harshness (NVH) levels filtering into the cabin. Honda is working on progressively threading out this issue.

Jnaneswar Sen, senior VP (marketing & sales) said, “It (i-DTEC engine) has been well accepted in the country and is attracting new customers. The one lakh sales of i-DTEC-powered cars is a major milestone for us and we are really proud of this achievement.”