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Tag: asia

  • Japanese firm eyes stake in ailing Vietnamese bank

    Japanese firm eyes stake in ailing Vietnamese bank

    Japan’s J Trust has expressed interest in acquiring a stake in Vietnam Construction Bank, one of three weakest state-owned banks in the country. Nobiru Adachi, senior managing director and executive officer of finance firm J Trust, told Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue Friday that he wanted to restructure the Vietnam Construction Bank (CB).

    J Trust will also support CB in terms of technology and financial operations, he added.

    Hue responded that J Trust’s proposal was in line with the government’s wish for local or foreign investors to buy weak banks. The government wants to sell CB to an investor to restructure it, he added.

    J Trust should discuss its proposal with the State Bank of Vietnam so that the deal could be presented to the Prime Minister for consideration, he added.

    Hue said last year that the government would allow foreign investors to fully acquire weak banks that it had bought for zero dong. These banks are CB, Oceanbank and Global Petro Commercial Jsc Bank.

    CB, formerly Trust Bank, was acquired by the government in 2015 and was given the new name. By 2017, it managed to recover over VND5.7 trillion ($245.73 million) of its bad debt.

    J Trust engages in commercial banking services, retail financial services and debt collection services throughout Asia. It has experience in assisting struggling financial institutions and has successfully restructured weak banks in South Korea and Indonesia.

    Vietnam has nine wholly-owned foreign banks, four state-owned banks and 31 joint-stock banks.

  • Two execs quit ride-hailing firm Go-Viet

    Two execs quit ride-hailing firm Go-Viet

    Go-Viet has confirmed that its general director and deputy general director have quit their positions. General director Nguyen Vu Duc and deputy general director Nguyen Bao Linh have resigned from their positions, the Vietnamese ride-sharing firm announced Friday.

    The two would continue to work as advisors for Go-Viet and its Indonesian counterpart Go-Jek from Vietnam, while the management of Go-Viet’s day-to-day work will be handled by the company’s remaining leaders, it said.

    Phung Tuan Duc, Go-Viet’s managing director, said the company would continue working closely with Duc and Linh to help develop the platform.

    According to Deal Street Asia, the news of Duc and another of Go-Viet’s senior directors resigning was already announced internally earlier this week. The news site also claimed the two had demanded large sums of money in compensation upon resigning, but the company did not comment on this.

    Nguyen Vu Duc graduated from Harvard University, the U.S., with a master’s degree in business administration and worked for nearly a decade at a major bank in Vietnam. In 2014, he helped deploy ride-hailing firm Uber’s services in Vietnam and went on to launch a fintech firm in 2015-2018.

    Duc eventually returned to the ride-sharing market as co-founder and CEO of Go-Viet, which began operations last August. At press meetings, he has said that Go-Viet was a Vietnamese startup with funding and technology support from Go-Jek.

    Duc and Linh’s resignations have come at a time when Go-Viet has been stagnating in all its services – ride-sharing, food delivery and package delivery. Since the start of this month, the company has cut its drivers’ revenue to 20 percent, prompting many drivers to consider switching to another ride-sharing service.

    Meanwhile, its main competitor Grab has been expanding its food delivery service and its cashless payment service GrabPay by Moca, which now has new features allowing users to pay electricity, water and phone bills.

    The Be Group, the latest ride-sharing market entrant in Vietnam, has announced it has recruited over 15,000 drivers in just three months and is planning to expand its presence to 22 provinces and municipalities this year.

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  • Deutsche Bank Appoints Head of Thailand

    Deutsche Bank Appoints Head of Thailand

    The German lender hires a new head from Siam Commercial Bank to fill the position left vacant since 2018. Deutsche Bank (DB) will get a new head for its Thailand operations in May, with the appointment of Pimolpa Suntichok as chief country officer and head of the financing and solutions group for Thailand, according to people close to the matter.

    Suntichok fills a position left by Phumchai Kambhato, who left the bank in 2018. She will report to Werner Steinmueller in her country management capacity and to Sreenivasan Iyer for her FSG responsibilities.

    Suntichok was previously the Senior Executive Vice President serving as the Head of Commercial Banking Solutions at Siam Commericial Bank, Thailand’s largest commercial bank. She brings over 20 years of experience in banking, having worked at Bangkok Bank, Jardine Fleming Thanakom Securities, Fitch Ratings (Thailand), and Standard Chartered Bank (Thailand). She joined SCB in 2008 to lead the structured finance practice for the Capital Markets Division and became the Head of Corporate Segment in 2015 and the Head of MultiCorporate Segment in 2016, according to SCB’s website.

    Future Uncertainty 

    Deutsche Bank in recent months has seen a raft of departures in Asia, including Southeast Asia Vice Chairman Philip Lee, Jakarta-based managing director Kunardy Lie, and North Asia COO

    Katherine Lai.

    DB, on its third CEO in four years, has in recent years scaled down its Asian operations as its focus has shifted towards Europe amid difficulties in the region. However, Thailand remains an important market for DB in Asia-Pacific, with the bank having a 40-year history in the country.

    The bank is currently in the midst of merger discussions with Commerzbank, which has cast uncertainty over Deutsche’s general strategy for the future.

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  • Visa launches payments security roadmap for Vietnam

    Visa launches payments security roadmap for Vietnam

    It was one of four initiatives the company outlined in the “Future of Security” roadmap it launched. Visa said the roadmap focuses on a number of key initiatives that would enable security to evolve at the same pace as the technologies changing the way of paying.

    Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa’s country manager for Viet Nam and Laos, said: “Securing the commerce eco-system is our highest priority and one we view as a shared responsibility between payment networks, consumers, banks, and the Government.

    “Technology has enabled new innovative ways to pay and be paid, but it has also brought unique risks. To stay ahead of fraud, we need to work together and give security the same attention and investment as we do the innovations driving new e-commerce experiences.”

    The other three initiatives are devaluing data by removing sensitive data from the eco-system, thus making stolen account details useless; protecting data by implementing safeguards to protect personal data as well as account details and harnessing data by identifying potential fraud before it occurs and increase confidence in approving good transactions.

    The release of Visa’s roadmap comes at a time of rapid change for payments in Viet Nam with innovations such as mobile payments set to enhance the payment experience for consumers.

    According to Visa’s study titled Consumer Payment Attitude, security remains a key consideration for consumers across Southeast Asia with 67 per cent concerned about the safety of their personal information when using their mobile phones to make payments.

    Asked specifically about what their top three concerns were, consumers in Viet Nam said losing their phone or having their phone stolen, the phone getting hacked or someone intercepting data and malware or viruses being installed on the phone.

    Visa works with industry stakeholders including financial institutions, merchants, policy makers, law enforcement, and accountholders to secure payments.

    The Visa Future of Security Roadmap is a product of comprehensive consultations and collaboration, making it an authoritative document on Vietnam payments security.

    Visa is delivering roadmaps around the world to ensure the security of the global commerce eco-system and in Viet Nam also working with industry bodies to align security initiatives.

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  • Singaporean firm’s taxi joint venture in Vietnam suffers losses

    Singaporean firm’s taxi joint venture in Vietnam suffers losses

    ComfortDelgro Savico Taxi, a joint venture between a Singaporean transport corporation and Vietnamese motor vehicle dealer, lost $103,000 last year. This figure is mentioned in the latest financial statement published this month by local retail, motor vehicle and parts dealer Savico, the Vietnamese joint venture partner. ComfortDelgro Savico Taxi has been in constant trouble in the last few years. After nearly ten years of operation, the joint venture had to restructure and upgrade its fleet to maintain an exploitation rate of 90 percent, which meant heavy investments.

    However, just when it was becoming profitable enough to offset cumulative losses of the previous years, the joint venture met fierce competition from ride-hailing start-ups Grab and Uber.

    Savico decided to close the taxi firm’s operations last March to preserve its capital. At closure time it had 352 cars but only 140 drivers.

    Following the joint venture’s closure, ComfortDelGro’s revenue in Vietnam fell to $3.3 million in 2018 compared to $6.8 million the previous year, down by more than half.

    ComfortDelGro’s Vietnam earnings now account for less than 1 percent of its total revenue. The firm also has business in Singapore, the U.K., Australia, China and Malaysia.

    According to financial statements, ComforDelGro’s non-current asset value in Vietnam has also fallen from $12.8 million in January 2017 to only $4.8 million in 2018.

    Although the Singaporean transport firm’s management did not give a reason for the fall, experts have not ruled out the possibility that it has already liquidated all its long-term assets in the joint venture and is waiting to complete dissolution procedures.

    ComfortDelgro Savico Taxi, formerly known as Tourism Taxi Savico Enterprise, was established in March 2005 as a joint venture between Savico (40 percent) and ComfortDelGro (60 percent) – a leading public passenger transport operator in Singapore.

    ComfortDelGro still owns a 70 percent stake in another local taxi firm called VinaTaxi, which takes up the third largest market share in the HCMC taxi market.

    However, last November, its Vietnamese partner, the Transport and Industry Development Investment Corporation (Tracodi), withdrew its 30 percent stake from the joint venture, citing poor business performance.

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  • Kia Showcasted Three Concept Cars At The Seoul Motor Show

    Kia Showcasted Three Concept Cars At The Seoul Motor Show

    Kia Motors is all set to reveal a trio of new concepts at the 2019 Seoul Motor Show and they will preview the brand’s future design direction. Two of the three concepts make their international debut in Seoul, with the rugged Kia Masterpiece Concept which shows off a large SUV body with a luxurious, high-tech cabin. The Masterpiece is accompanied by the Kia Signature which is essentially the SP concept that the company showcased at the 2018 Auto Expo and finally the Imagine by Kia concept car which is an all-electric sports sedan which embodies Kia’s desire to create exciting low-emissions passenger cars.

    Each of the cars illustrate different elements of the brand’s future model strategy. The Kia Masterpiece concept makes its first public appearance, with a rugged and robust large SUV. The Masterpiece hints at how the brand could adapt its latest designs and features for the large off-road SUV segment. It sees sculpted bodywork and bold lines and it combines a purposeful SUV stance and raised body, and an all-wheel drive system. The front of the car features Kia’s new tiger nose grille, extended outwards across the whole front section of the concept, with no clear boundaries between grille and LED headlamps. The design of the front of the car is echoed in the rear of the car, with signature lines at both ends of the vehicle giving the car a consistent design all round.

    The Signature Concept is the made its international debut at the India’s Auto Expo 2018 in Delhi. Driven by advanced technology, the Kia SP Concept hints at the company’s plans to introduce a new small SUV for its global markets as well. The SP Concept gets a wide grille and long hood at the front, and a rear design which emphasises stability with wide rear lamps and body lines, the Signature stands out on the road. At the front, its lamps are connected to the ‘tiger nose’ grille, with integrated daytime running lamps. Its strong shoulder line, with a glasshouse which tapers towards the rear of the car, lends the compact SUV an air of understated sportiness. The exterior is completed with a series of distinct styling features, contributing to the car’s contemporary, technical design. These include thin LED lamps at the front and rear, sharp lines pressed into the bodywork, and precise metallic details. Of course the production ready version will be revealed later this year.

    Finally, it’s the Imagine by Kia concept which was revealed at the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show, but it’ll now make its Asian debut. The fully-electric sports sedan concept has been designed at Kia’s European design center in Frankfurt, Germany. This concept is Kia’s first pure electric four-door passenger car. The Imagine by Kia concept represents a more progressive Kia design language for the future, with intelligent reinterpretations of existing Kia motifs and a bodywork characterized by a blend of tautly-drawn sheet metal, crisp lines, and efficient aerodynamics.

    The design team has exploited the chassis architecture of the powertrain’s all-electric layout to maximise cabin space and create an airy and spacious interior. The concept features 21 individual ultra high-resolution screens. While not immediately destined for production, the Imagine by Kia concept hints at interior and exterior design elements that could be adapted for future production models from the brand.

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  • Vietnam’s fashion enters the world market

    Vietnam’s fashion enters the world market

    The aim of both My and Tri was to open shops that sell high-end made-in-Vietnam fashion products in the US.

    “What I am concerned about is whether we can approach a new market after the event. I attended fashion week not just to polish the brand name, which can help boost sales in Vietnam,” My said.

    He has been working with leading music stars to popularize his design brand. In 2017, Rhihana chose a design of Tri in his Em Hoa Collection introduced at Tokyo Fashion Week for a shoot to advertise a shoe brand. Meanwhile, Katy Perry ordered Tri three outfits for her world tour Witness.

    Phuong My, a graduate of the Academy of Art University in California, has appeared in prestigious catwalks and fashion journals. She has stated that her designs target the one percent of ultra-wealthy people.

    My’s products are available in 30 shops in 20 countries, mostly in the Middle East and Asia. Lydia Hearst appeared on Genlux’s cover with My’s design in 2014. Elizabeth DiPrinzio chose My as her designer and Coco Rocha chose My’s products for her working days in Vietnam in March 2017.

    Another Vietnamese designer, Tom Trandt, has gained big success despite his young age.

    Graduating from Parsons The New School for Design and spending five years in New York, he is one of very few young designers who want to ‘tell their own stories’.

    In 2016, Moi-Dien, a clothing brand created by Tom Trandt, debuted and immediately caught attention. Each product sells at VND600,000-2 million.

    Trandt is the only Vietnamese representative out of 16 designers  chosen for the International Fashion Showcase 2019 (IFS) in London.

    Hai Minh, who lived and worked in France, has returned to Vietnam to build the Leinne brand, specializing in bags and hat accessories, with a family-run workshop which has been operating for 20 years. Minh is making hectic preparations to participate in Paris Fashion Week later this year.

    Meanwhile, foreign designers can see bright future for Vietnam’s fashion. Luis Antonio Torres, one of the top luxury designers in Vietnam, said in an interview to the local press that the country could become Southeast Asia’s biggest fashion hub.

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  • Ducati Diavel 1260 Receives 2019 Red Dot Design Award

    Ducati Diavel 1260 Receives 2019 Red Dot Design Award

    Ever since it came into existence, the Ducati Diavel has been a standout motorcycle as far as design and performance is concerned. Its raw sex appeal and power cruiser styling has been liked by enthusiasts. And furthering its reputation, the new Ducati Diavel 1260 has won the Red Dot Award “best of the best” in the product design category this year. The Diavel 1260 won the award amongst 5,500 products, with 40 international jury members voting for it to be the winner. This is the third time that Ducati has won a Red Dot award with previous winners being the 1199 Panigale in 2013 and the XDiavel S in 2016. Yes! It is a second for the Ducati Diavel family as well.

    The 2019 Ducati Diavel 1260 makes 159 bhp at 9500 rpm and 128 Nm of peak torque kicking in at 7500 rpm, from the 1,262 cc, Testastretta V-twin with desmodromic valve timing. The new Diavel offers three riding modes – Sport, Touring and Urban. Each mode has its own engine map, as well as distinctive settings for traction control, wheelie control and cornering ABS. Other features include a full-colour TFT display, hands-free ignition, and cruise control.

    The S variant gets Bluetooth connectivity on the TFT screen and full LED lighting. The top-spec S variant gets fully adjustable 48 mm fork and rear shock from Ohlins. The S model also uses Brembo M50 monobloc front brake calipers, whereas the regular Diavel 1260 uses Brembo M4.32 calipers. Both variants use twin 320 mm front discs and a 260 mm rear disc.

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  • Fiat Chrysler To Cut 1,500 Jobs At Canadian Minivan Plant

    Fiat Chrysler To Cut 1,500 Jobs At Canadian Minivan Plant

    Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said on Thursday it will eliminate one shift at its Windsor, Ontario, assembly plant where it builds minivans, resulting in the loss of 1,500 jobs.

    The Italian-American automaker said in a statement the elimination of a shift, which will take effect on Sept. 30, was to address slowing global demand. The company said it would offer retirement packages to eligible employees and attempt to place indefinitely laid off hourly employees in open full-time positions. Earlier this week, Canadian media outlets reported Fiat Chrysler would idle the plant for two weeks in April, the third time this year the plant has been temporarily closed.

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  • Isuzu To Increase Prices Of The D-Max

    Isuzu To Increase Prices Of The D-Max

    Isuzu Motors India has announced to increase the prices of its commercial pick-up range- the D-Max Regular Cab and the D-Max S-Cab. The company has decided to increase the prices by 2 per cent which will be effective from April 1. Following a series of price hike by carmakers like Mahindra, Tata Motors, Renault and Nissan, even Isuzu has made the price hike announcement citing similar reasons. The company has cited rising input costs and distribution costs as the reason for the increase in prices.

    It has become a common practice for automakers to adjust prices of select models at the beginning of a financial year in a bid to sustain their margin. Isuzu has increased the prices of its commercial range which means only the D-Max pick-up trucks will get more expensive. The Isuzu D-Max V-Cross which is more of a lifestyle vehicle will see no change in the prices.

    The D-Max Regular Cab and the S-Cab are priced at ₹ 7.40 lakh and ₹ 8.89 Lakh, respectively (all prices ex-showroom, Delhi). Both the pick-up trucks are powered by a 2.5-litre, four-cylinder, turbocharged engine which churns out 78 bhp and 176 Nm of peak torque and is mated to a five-speed manual gearbox as standard.

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  • Honda Motorcycle And Scooter India Inaugurates Its 1,000th Dealership

    Honda Motorcycle And Scooter India Inaugurates Its 1,000th Dealership

    Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India recently inaugurated its 1,000th dealership in India at Zirakpur in Punjab. The 1,000th Honda Exclusive Authorised Dealer is a 4S facility. With an aggressive expansion plan, Honda has added 3,300 touch-points in the last five years across the country. At present, HMSI has a total of 6,000 touch-points in India, one of the highest for a two-wheeler manufacturer. Recently, Honda also achieved another milestone, with customers in north India crossing the 60 lakh sales mark in the company’s 18th year of operations. The 60,00,000 sales milestone has been driven by demand for Honda two-wheelers in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and in Delhi and Chandigarh. For Honda, the first 10 lakh customers were added in the initial 9 years (from 2001 to 2010), but the next 50 lakh Honda customers took the same duration (2010-2019). The most recent 10 lakh Honda customers were added in a little over a year.

    Minoru Kato – President & CEO, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, “I am delighted to be present here on milestone 1000th Honda dealer inauguration. Honda also fulfilled its commitment of providing 6000 network touchpoints to our valuable customers by the end of current financial year. This landmark achievement brings Honda closer to the hearts of its customers, who have reposed their trust in the brand.”

    Honda’s increasing customer base in India is attributed to the growing acceptance of scooters in the region. And the growing sale of scooters in the past decade has also led to a huge spurt in automatic scooters contribution to overall two-wheeler sales. In the last 10 years, automatic scooter sales have nearly doubled from 10 per cent to 19 per cent. This trend is attributed to more women joining the workforce, faster expanding road network in rural areas, and increasing demand for unisex two-wheelers which fulfil the needs of every family member. HMSI currently is the largest seller of scooters in India, and the Honda Activa is one of the highest selling two-wheelers in India.

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  • Home-and-living brand Jiyoujia debuts in Singapore

    Home-and-living brand Jiyoujia debuts in Singapore

    Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Taobao has launched its home-and-living channel, Jiyoujia in Singapore.

    Marking the brand’s first foray into an overseas market, products are on show at Taobao Home store at NomadX store.

    “Singapore is an important market for Taobao, and we continue to witness strong and sustained demand for the home-and-living category here by shoppers,” said Mickey Xiong, country director for Southeast Asia, at Taobao.

    “In fact, the home-and-living category is our fastest-growing segment here.”

    Jiyoujia also launched its Home Lab portal, one week after its debut in China. Using the portal, curated sets of Jiyoujia products are recommended to customers, promoted through interactive digital showcases. Surfers can hover over each item for more information.

  • Gmail users can now customize swipe actions on iPhone

    Gmail users can now customize swipe actions on iPhone

    Google has just made it official that iPhone users of its ever-growing Gmail email app can now customize a number of swipe actions. The update is clearly meant to enable Gmail users to execute certain actions faster than before, but Google also mentions the addition of the new feature matches the brand new mobile redesign of the app that added many new productivity improvements.

    You’re probably wondering what type of actions you’ll be able to customize in Gmail on iOS, so here is the full list: Archive, Trash, Mark as read/unread, Snooze, and Move to. These actions can now be executed using a single swipe gesture, but you’ll have to configure them first.

    Here is how you can do that: head to Settings / Swipe action, then, choose the swipe options that better fit your usage style. You can choose to swipe left or right on an email to archive it or directly move it to trash, but there are other options available too.

    Besides adding customizable swipe actions, the latest update makes it possible to use the same actions to sort your notifications. Whenever you want to snooze emails, you can now long press on a Gmail iOS notification or use 3D Touch, and then click on “Snooze” directly to pick the date and time when to snooze the email until.
    Keep in mind that while the update has been released on March 28, it will take more than 15 days to arrive on all iPhones out there, so if you don’t see the new feature yet, you’ll have to wait a while.
  • New Milestone for Hong Kong as a Financial Center

    New Milestone for Hong Kong as a Financial Center

    The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has granted the first virtual banking licenses to three institutions. According to their business plans, these banks will launch their services within six to nine months.

    The three banks that received a license are Livi VB, SC Digital Solutions and ZhongAn Virtual Finance to operate in the form of a virtual bank. The granting of these banking licenses takes effect today, according to a media release on Wednesday.

    According to their business plans, these three newly licensed virtual banks intend to launch their services within 6 to 9 months. After the granting of the above banking licenses, the number of licensed banks in Hong Kong will be increased to 155.

    Reinforcing Hong Kong’s Position

    The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is making good progress in the processing of the remaining 5 virtual bank applications, according to further information.

    «It is a major milestone in reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as a premier international financial center. I believe that virtual banks will not only help drive fintech and innovation but also bring about brand new customer experiences and further promote financial inclusion in Hong Kong», Norman T.L. Chan, CEO of the HKMA, said.

    Targeting the Retail Public and SMEs

    I believe that virtual banks will have to offer innovative and customer-centric services in order to attract customers. Moreover, in targeting the retail public and SMEs as their main client base, virtual banks should help promote financial inclusion in Hong Kong, he added.

    The U.K. market, where neobanks and digital-only challengers have been around for a while, shows there’s a big chance new players will grab a significant chunk of new financial services revenue in the near future in Hong Kong, but that doesn’t mean all is lost for traditional banks here, Fergus Gordon, a managing director at Accenture who leads its Banking practice in Asia Pacific and Africa, said.

    Some Consolidation Expected

    Virtual banks will need some years to establish themselves, then there will likely be some consolidation among some of the players, and in the meantime, traditional players should continue to rapidly reconfigure their branch networks to become more focused on experiences and use technology to make the transition from digital to physical and back much more seamless, he added.

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  • New Honda Accord For ASEAN Markets Revealed

    New Honda Accord For ASEAN Markets Revealed

    The tenth generation Honda Accord has been revealed for the ASEAN markets and the all-new sedan is more compact than its predecessor while offering more generous cabin space. Interestingly, the new generation ASEAN-spec Accord is similar to the North American version in design that has been on sale since 2017. The latter model has usually been bolder and sportier in terms of appearance, and it’s nice to see the ASEAN model borrowing those traits. This is also the version of the new Honda Accord that India will get, possibly by next year.

    With respect to dimensions, the 2019 Honda Accord is shorter in length, while the wheelbase has gone up over the ninth generation version. The new Accord is 13 mm shorter at 4920 mm, while the wheelbase stands at 2830 mm, up by 54 mm. The new version is also 10 mm wider than the previous gen Accord while the roofline has been lowered by 15 mm that lends a coupe-like appearance.

    The tenth generation Honda Accord gets an imposing design language with the thick chrome bar on the grille with the giant ‘H’ in the centre. The car gets full-LED headlamps with daytime running lights and the fog lamps too are LED equipped. The coupe roofline takes prominence at the sides with a chrome lining running through, and also gets the diamond cut alloy wheels. The rear sports the new C-shaped LED taillights that we first saw on the new generation Civic globally and the boot comes with an integrated spoiler for the sporty appearance.

    Inside, the ASEAN-spec 2019 Honda Accord gets a familiar treatment with the flat-bottom, multi-function steering wheel, floating infotainment system and a semi-digital instrument console. The seats are upholstered in leather and are finished in brown, creating a nice contrast over the black dashboard. The leather upholstery also extends to the door panels and centre console in the car. Like the current version, the new Accord is loaded on tech and comes with climate control, electric sunroof, heads-up display, front and rear parking sensors, 360-degree camera, cross traffic monitoring, wireless smartphone charging, Honda Smart Parking Assist System with auto parallel and perpendicular parking. The car also gets the Honda Sensing Suite that adds a bunch of safety aids to the sedan.

    The all-new Honda Accord will be offered with two engine options including the 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine that churns out 188 bhp and 243 Nm of the peak torque, while there is also the 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol motor that is paired with electric motors on the hybrid version. The combined output on the new Accord Hybrid is rated at 213 bhp. It is the hybrid version that India is likely to get and will replace the current Accord Hybrid already on sale here.