2021 Honda City Hatchback Debuts, Replacing The Jazz In ASEAN

The Honda Jazz is dead, long live the Honda City hatchback. Ever since the debut of the all-new Honda City sedan last year in Thailand and the all-new Honda Jazz in Japan last year, reports have indicated that the Jazz will be discontinued for the ASEAN region. These reports are now confirmed as Honda has just unveiled the all-new 2021 Honda City hatchback in Thailand.

Design-wise, it isn’t surprising that the City sedan and hatch share the same overall design, but that’s only the case up until the B-pillars. From there, the City hatchback has a longer roof and different rear doors to accommodate the hatchback body style. The rear fascia is slightly different, featuring slimmer LED taillights and more rounded rear bumpers.

The interior of the City hatchback remains largely the same as the sedan. The only minor difference is the addition of red details in the seats of the RS variant. One of the features that made the Jazz popular is its ULTR seats, which proved to be highly flexible. Thankfully, this has been carried over to the City hatchback, letting owners flip up the seat bases or completely fold the rear seats flat to carry long items.

When it comes to the powertrain, the Thai-market City hatchback is powered by Honda’s new 1.0-liter inline-3 turbo gasoline engine that’s also in the Thai-market City sedan. This turbocharged engine produces 120 hp and 173 Nm of torque, with power being sent to the front wheels via a CVT.

Honda Thailand also launched a City e:HEV hybrid, which consists of a 1.5-liter Atkinson Cycle gasoline engine and an electric motor at the front axle. The gasoline engine itself produces 97 hp and 127 Nm, while the electric motor produces 106 hp and 253 Nm of torque.

As for when it makes its debut in the Philippines? We won’t be surprised if it comes with the City sedan’s new non-turbo DOHC i-VTEC gasoline engine that produces 121 hp and 148 Nm of torque. Power is then sent to the front wheels via a CVT.

There is no official announcement yet as to when the 2021 Honda City hatchback will make its debut in the Philippines, though don’t be surprised if the Honda Jazz gets discontinued in the Philippine market in favor of this new model.