Those who have been waiting to buy the new Honda Accord will now have to wait till May. The eighth generation Accord, which was earlier scheduled to be launched in March, has been delayed.

Honda’s Indian subsidiary Honda Seil Car India Limited has stopped production of Accord since December. This was in anticipation of launch of 8th generation Accord in India, while it has already been launched in USA and European markets in 2007.

Talking about it, Mr Jnaneswar Sen, Senior General Manager (marketing) Honda Seil Car India said “After the US launch of new Accord, we had gradually cut down production numbers starting from October. Meanwhile, we also took up expansion of the plant and stopped production of the car altogether in December.”

Mr Sen also added that the consumers in the premium car segment are very knowledgeable and are very demanding. Hence, the new car will not be released in a hurry but after a thorough revamping of the car suited to Indian condition that will be later in the summer.

The launch of new Accord in overseas market affected sales of existing 2007 model. This prompted Honda to stop production altogether in December. The sales numbers speaks for itself- Honda sold only 64 Accord cars in December against the 268 units sold in November, and 46 units in January and a further dip in sales with just nine Accord cars sold in February throughout the country.

The 8th generation Accord premium midsized car will be 2.5 to 3 inches longer than the existing model. It will be powered by a 3.5 liter V6 engine, which is more powerful than existing Accord. The Accord that has already hit the market is fitted with two types of engines -the 2.4liter i-VTEC engine and the 3.0liter V6 engine.

The new car will also be slightly costlier with the price ranging from Rs 17 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.