Having seen the warm reception Nissan’s quirkily styled Juke has received, Honda now plans to release a compact SUV based on its Jazz light car and has offered us a glimpse of what’s to come in the guise the Honda Urban SUV Concept.
This swoopily styled concept has already been given the go-ahead for production and will be underpinned by the same platform as the next-generation Jazz when it goes on the market in 2014.
The Jazz underpinnings will mean that the 4 300 mm-long production model will utilise a centre tank layout, as well as that model’s highly configurable seating layout that incorporates a flat-floor setting for optimal cargo space.
Slotting in beneath the recently launch CR-V, the new compact SUV will also feature one of Honda’s fuel-efficient Earth Dreams engines – a four-cylinder powerplant with numerous enhancements such as direct fuel injection that can realise a 10 per cent improvement in fuel consumption over engines of an equivalent displacement. It will also, according to Honda, usher in a modern interior and next-generation telematics.
Expect the new model to arrive in European markets in mid-to-late 2014.
