Honda Elevate bookings open on Monday, July 3

Honda will officially open bookings for the upcoming Elevate midsize SUV on Monday, July 3, our dealer sources have confirmed. The Elevate’s booking amount will be pegged at Rs 21,000, and it’s a much-awaited new launch from Honda India in several years, joining the crowded and fiercely competitive midsize SUV segment.

Our dealer sources have also confirmed that price announcement for the Elevate will happen by late August or early September. The Elevate will be available in showrooms for static display by late July and test drives are expected to begin by early August. 

Honda Elevate trim and variant details
Dealer sources have suggested that the Elevate will be offered in four trim levels. Although exact trim details are not known yet, it will likely mimic that of the City sedan, which means it could be offered SV, V, VX and ZX trims. A manual gearbox will be standard across the range while the automatic gearbox can be expected to be offered on all but the base trim.

Speaking of which, powering the Elevate will be a 121hp, 145Nm, 1.5-litre, four-cylinder, naturally-aspirated petrol engine mated to a 6-speed manual or an optional 7-step CVT gearbox. While this powertrain is shared with the City, the 1.5-litre petrol-hybrid powertrain from the former will not feature on the Elevate as it has not been localized yet, and would have been a pricey proposition.

Honda Elevate design, interior and features
To give you a brief recap about the Elevate from our first look of the SUV earlier this month, its sized quite similar to the Creta and Seltos duo, measuring 4,312mm in length, 1,790mm in width, 1,650mm in height and has a wheelbase of 2,650mm. It also gets segment-leading 220mm of ground clearance. The styling is typically Honda, deriving cues from the brand’s global line-up such as the CR-V or WR-V, and although it has all the essential SUV styling attributes, some could even call it conservative.

What really impressed us about the Elevate was its interior quality and space. The cabin feels quite premium with soft-touch panels and comfortable and spacious seating. It’s even quite well-equipped with features such as a 10.25-inch touchscreen, a 7-inch semi-digital instrument cluster, lane-watch camera, wireless charging, wireless Android Auto/Apple CarPlay as well as Honda’s ADAS suite with collision mitigation braking system, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control and more. It, however, only gets a single-pane sunroof while panoramic ones have almost become the norm of the segment.

Honda Elevate price and rivals
Upon launch, the Elevate will rival the likes of the Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Volkswagen Taigun, Skoda Kushaq, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder, MG Astor and the upcoming Citroen C3 Aircross. Much will ride on how Honda prices the Elevate given the stiff competition and all players having meaningful slices of the midsize SUV pie.