Honda is going to set up exporting 1.6-litre diesel engines for the Thailand market. The said engines will be produced at the Tapukara plant in Rajasthan, which currently caters only to the domestic market. 

Tapukara presently produces three types of engines for the Indian market - 1.2-litre petrol, 1.5-litre petrol and 1.5-litre diesel. Altogether, the company manufactures around 440 units of these engines every day.

As of now, Honda has been exporting engine components to 15 countries, although this is the first time the company will ship off diesel engines to a global market.

In fact, the carmaker has already been manufacturing and exporting crankshafts and connecting rods of this engine for relatively some time now and switching to complete engine body making shouldn’t be a problem for Honda. Currently, it makes 1.2-litre and 1.5-litre petrol engines and 1.5-litre diesel engines at its Rajasthan facility.

Besides the daily production of 480 engine units in two shifts, the plant has an additional capability to produce 240 units. The same will be consumed by the 1.6-litre diesel engines. Moreover, these 1.6-litre diesel engines are most likely to make way into the new Indian-spec CRV launching next year.

The carmaker was already exporting budget cars like the Brio, Amaze and the City from India. The export of a diesel engine, that too, for a premium vehicle is positively a milestone and speaks for the top-notch quality Honda is able to pull out from its Indian facility.