India sells the same Honda City as Pakistan with one addition: the e:HEV hybrid. Road-tested there, in heat and traffic much like ours, it returns 19.8 km/l in the city against the 13 km/l Pakistani owners report from the non-hybrid car sold here - about half as much again, in the conditions that matter most. Nothing else about the car changes. This is the clearest illustration available of what Pakistan gives up by not importing hybrid versions of cars it already assembles.
Each market tests to its own legal cycle, so these numbers describe the same engine measured three different ways. Read down a market, not across them. Figures are shown in km/l, with the market's own published unit beneath it wherever that unit differs.
| Variant | City | Highway | Combined | CO2 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 e:HEV hybrid, e-CVT 126 PS · 253 Nm · e-CVT · Hybrid | 19.8 | 22.5 | 21.2 | — | The same generation of City Pakistan sells, with the hybrid system Pakistan does not get: a 1.5 running the Atkinson cycle at 40.5 per cent thermal efficiency, driving the wheels through a 109 PS electric motor. The figures above are Autocar India's road test rather than the ARAI certification, which reads 26.5 km/l. Against the 13 km/l city and 17 highway Pakistani owners report from the non-hybrid car sold here, the hybrid is worth roughly half as much again in town - and it was measured in heat and traffic much like ours. Certified by ARAI, India's testing authority. ARAI figures are optimistic - this car's own road-tested average came out about 20 per cent below its ARAI number - but Indian conditions are the closest foreign analogue to Pakistani ones, so Indian road-test figures travel across better than any European or American result. Source |
| 1.5 i-VTEC petrol, CVT 121 PS · 145 Nm · CVT · Petrol | — | — | 18.4 | — | Mechanically the car Pakistan gets: the same 1.5 i-VTEC and CVT, no hybrid. India certifies it at 18.4 km/l, Pakistani owners of the same car report about 14.6 km/l combined. The gap between those two numbers is the gap between a test cycle and a road, on an identical car - which is the clearest illustration on this site of why certified figures should never be quoted as though they were measurements. Certified by ARAI, India's testing authority. ARAI figures are optimistic - this car's own road-tested average came out about 20 per cent below its ARAI number - but Indian conditions are the closest foreign analogue to Pakistani ones, so Indian road-test figures travel across better than any European or American result. Source |
Europe and Australia certify in litres per 100 km; the km/l figure above it is our conversion, at 100 ÷ l per 100 km. Korea certifies in km/l, so those rows carry the published figure alone and no converted one.
What the international specification genuinely gains, and what it does not.
The Honda City sold in Pakistan and the one sold in India are the same generation of the same car, built on the same platform, with the same 1.5-litre i-VTEC engine and the same CVT. India offers one thing Pakistan does not: Honda's e:HEV hybrid system.
That system pairs a 98 PS 1.5 running the Atkinson cycle - tuned for efficiency rather than power, at 40.5 per cent thermal efficiency - with a 109 PS electric motor. For most of the time the engine is a generator and the motor drives the wheels; at a steady cruise a clutch locks the engine to the axle directly. There is no plug and nothing to charge.
The result is the most useful comparison on this site. ARAI certifies the Indian hybrid at 26.5 km/l, but Autocar India's road test is the figure worth having: 19.8 km/l in the city, 22.5 on the highway, 21.15 average. Pakistani owners of the non-hybrid car report 13 km/l in the city and 17 on the highway.
India is not a laboratory. It has the heat, the congestion, the fuel quality and the driving culture Pakistan has. When a figure travels across from Europe it has to be discounted heavily; when one travels from an Indian road test, it travels almost intact. On that basis the hybrid City is worth about half as much again in city driving - and city driving is where Pakistani cars spend most of their lives.
India's City e:HEV uses a 1,498 cc four-cylinder running the Atkinson cycle, rated at 98 PS, paired with two motors: a generator and a 109 PS traction motor producing 253 Nm. System output is about 126 PS. There is no conventional gearbox - an e-CVT manages the split, and at steady highway speeds a lock-up clutch connects the engine to the wheels directly, because at a constant cruise a mechanical path beats a conversion to electricity and back.
The non-hybrid Indian car is the same 1,498 cc i-VTEC and CVT Pakistan uses, rated at 121 PS and 145 Nm.
Pakistan's City is offered with that i-VTEC 1.5 and a 1.2; neither is hybrid, and no hybrid version has been announced for local assembly.
The numbers on this page are worth reading carefully, because three different kinds appear.
ARAI certifies the Indian hybrid at 26.5 km/l. That is a test-cycle result and nobody achieves it.
Autocar India road-tested the same car at 19.8 km/l in the city and 22.5 on the highway, averaging 21.15. That is a measurement, on a road, in Indian conditions.
Pakistani owners report 13 km/l city and 17 highway from the non-hybrid car sold here, and about 14.6 combined.
The third of those is the only Pakistani figure, and it is the one on our Pakistani City page. The second is the one worth comparing it against, because the conditions are genuinely similar. The first should be ignored.
It is also worth noting what the non-hybrid comparison shows: India certifies the identical petrol City at 18.4 km/l, Pakistani owners of that same car record about 14.6. A quarter of the difference between a cycle and a road, on a car where nothing at all has changed.
The Indian City carries six airbags as standard across the range following India's 2026 requirement, along with electronic stability control and ISOFIX anchors. Higher trims add Honda Sensing, a camera-and-radar driver-assistance package with adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist and collision mitigation braking.
Global NCAP has not crash-tested this generation of City under its current protocol, so there is no directly comparable star rating to quote.
Pakistan's City is not offered with Honda Sensing on any trim, and Pakistan has no crash-testing programme of its own, so the locally assembled car carries no independent safety rating at all.
No. Honda Atlas assembles the City in Pakistan with a 1.2 or 1.5 petrol engine and a CVT. The e:HEV hybrid is sold in India, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan, and has not been announced for Pakistan.
Road-tested in India, the hybrid returns 19.8 km/l in the city and 22.5 on the highway. Pakistani owners of the non-hybrid 1.5 CVT report 13 and 17. That is roughly 52 per cent better in the city and 32 per cent better on the highway. Because Indian traffic, heat and fuel closely resemble Pakistan's, that comparison carries across far better than a European figure would.
No. The e:HEV is a full hybrid, not a plug-in. It charges its own battery from the engine and from braking, and it is driven exactly like an automatic. There is nothing for the owner to do and no charging infrastructure involved.
About 21 km/l combined on an Indian road test - 19.8 city, 22.5 highway. The 26.5 km/l figure quoted widely is ARAI's certification, which is a laboratory cycle and is not achievable in normal driving.
We cannot answer for Honda. What is observable is that Pakistan's import and assembly duties are structured around engine displacement rather than emissions or efficiency, which gives an assembler little reason to bring in a more expensive hybrid powertrain. Pakistan's September 2026 GST reduction applies to locally assembled hybrids under 2000cc, which changes that arithmetic somewhat, but no announcement has followed.
Manufacturer reference: https://www.autocarindia.com/car-news/honda-city-hybrid-real-world-fuel-economy-tested-explained-425008
