2023 Honda City facelift open for booking in Malaysia – Low Speed Follow, LCDN added to Honda Sensing

Honda Malaysia has announced the start of order taking for the new Honda City facelift, which will be launched in the third quarter (Q3) of this year. The updated B-segment sedan first made its debut in India and has already gone on sale in Thailand earlier this month.

For now, we’re only shown the e:HEV RS variant, which the company says is longer than before at 4,589 mm (+36 mm), while retaining the same width (1,748 mm), height (1,467 mm) and wheelbase (2,600 mm).

As we’ve seen in markets where the new City is already launched, the design changes include a new front bumper that features redesigned fog lamp enclosures as well as additional trim (simulating air inlets) on the sides of the honeycomb mesh insert.

The grille has also been altered to have a slimmer chrome bar at the top edge, accompanied by a new pin-style insert. The RS model specifically gets a new rear diffuser-like element (non-RS variants will likely not get this), side skirts and slightly revised ‘RS’ emblems. Those 16-inch alloy wheels are unchanged in terms of size but they carry a new design.

Honda’s Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive (i-MMD) hybrid system is the same as before, with the front wheels being driven by an electric motor rated at 109 PS (107 hp or 80 kW) and 253 Nm. The electric power draws power from a lithium-ion battery that is charged via a second electric motor linked to a 1.5 litre naturally-aspirated DOHC i-VTEC four-cylinder engine running on the Atkinson cycle.

The petrol mill is rated at 98 PS (97 hp or 72 kW) and 127 Nm of torque and can clutch in through a single-speed transmission (dubbed E-CVT) to provide direct drive to the wheels at higher speeds where it is most efficient.

In addition to the hybrid powertrain, the City should also carry over the standard 1.5 litre NA four-cylinder DOHC i-VTEC unit with 121 PS (119 hp or 89 kW) and 145 Nm. This is paired exclusively with a CVT and should apply to the non-hybrid variants – the pre-facelift came in S, E, V and V-Sensing guises.

Honda Malaysia is withholding full equipment details for now, but it has confirmed that the Honda Sensing suite of advanced driver assistance systems is improved with the facelift. New features are Low Speed Follow (LSF) and Lead Car Departure Notification (LCDN), with the former working in conjunction with the already available Adaptive Cruise Control.

Other returning features include Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS or autonomous emergency braking), Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS), Road Departure Mitigation (RDM), Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Auto High Beam (AHB).

You can now place a booking for the new City at official dealerships or using the online car pre-booking service, the latter also accessible via the HondaTouch mobile app. The company notes that since the launch of the fifth-generation City in October 2020, 68,600 units have been sold. In the first half of 2023, 10,000 units of the B-segment sedan have been delivered to customers.

GALLERY: 2023 Honda City facelift (Thailand market)