Leaked:Honda Freed Jazz MPV

The Freed is not on Honda Cars India’s product plan.A single official image and a set of patent sketches of the 2017 Honda Freed, the Jazz-based MPV, have emerged online shortly ahead of the world premiere. The compact MPV is popular South East Asian markets like Japan and Indonesia.

The new gen mini MPV features evolutionary design changes that are aimed at bringing it in line with its family members (the City, Jazz and HR-V).

With the instantly recognizable Solid Wing Face front fascia, the new Freed sports a larger grille and narrower headlamps with integrated LED daytime running lights. In profile, though the sheet metal surfaces are redesigned, the car’s basic shape hasn’t changed much.

The modernized rear fascia gets wrap around combination lamps, trapezoidal license plate enclosure and a bumper with pseudo air-intakes on the edges. Interior is kept under wraps as of now but we expect several components to be derived from the other family members. It’s reasonable to expect the higher variants to offer a comprehensive touchscreen multimedia infotainment system.

Honda will reveal the powertrain details when the vehicle debuts in Japan this September. The existing 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol engine is most likely to be retained. The hybrid model is expected to borrow its running gears from the HR-V which employs the 1.5-litre petrol motor, an electric motor and a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

This article has first appeared in Rushlane.com