All You Need To Know About Honda-Horse Powertrain's 1.2-Litre Engine

Quick Read - Honda’s upcoming sub-4m SUV (expected around 2028) could use Horse Powertrain’s 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, which currently makes 130 PS and 230 Nm. The engine is designed for hybrid and alternative-fuel applications.

Honda and Suzuki have both recently announced new powertrain plans for India, and the timing is hard to ignore. Developing a new engine is an expensive, long-term process, so two major manufacturers unveiling fresh powertrain strategies around the same time is unlikely to be pure coincidence.

In this article, we are focusing on Honda's rather unusual “Horse” engine, which comes from Horse Powertrain, a Chinese-French joint venture.

What is Horse Powertrain?

Horse Powertrain is a global powertrain technology company created by Renault Group and Geely. The company was formed in 2024 by combining Renault's former Horse powertrain business with technology and manufacturing operations associated with Geely's Aurobay.

The ownership structure has since expanded with Saudi energy company Aramco taking a 10 percent stake. Renault Group and Geely each hold 45 percent.

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Horse is headquartered in London and operates a large international manufacturing and engineering network. Its business covers internal combustion engines, hybrid systems, transmissions, power electronics and range-extender technology.

The company has positioned itself as an independent powertrain supplier capable of developing and manufacturing engines for different vehicle manufacturers.

Horse already makes a 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine

The engine at the centre of the reports appears to be related to Horse's H12 or HR12 family.

Horse started production of the HR12 1.2-litre engine in Romania in 2024. It is a three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine designed with hybrid applications in mind.

The existing specification provides a useful indication of what Honda could potentially work with.

These numbers belong to the existing Horse engine and should not be treated as confirmed specifications for the future Honda SUV. Honda could use a different calibration, compression ratio, turbocharger setup or hybrid configuration depending on the final vehicle programme.

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Why the 1.2-litre engine is important

Two reasons immediately come to mind. First, Honda's portfolio in India is still a joke. It has one SUV, a sedan and a smaller sedan, and two of those three are in a segment that nobody seems particularly interested in anymore: sedans.

Second, to make Honda's lack of compelling products even more of a problem, you have the widely criticised ethanol situation. Thanks to the Indian government's piss-poor implementation of the ethanol push, engine manufacturers have increasingly little time to adapt before Nitin Gadkari and his rather questionable research make higher ethanol blends, potentially even E100, a legal requirement.

So rather than spending years and tens of millions of dollars developing an entirely new engine from scratch, Honda appears to have taken the far more pragmatic route. It can use one of the best powertrains already being developed and sold globally, with an existing production record, and then adapt it for India.

The so called Horse Engine uses a long-stroke architecture aimed at improving efficiency and combustion characteristics. Horse has also developed sophisticated thermal-management systems, including water-cooled charge-air cooling and cooled low-pressure exhaust-gas recirculation.

The result is an engine designed to deliver usable low-end torque while maintaining efficiency and meeting increasingly strict emissions requirements.

For Honda, another major advantage is flexibility. Rather than creating separate engine families for petrol, mild hybrid and alternative-fuel applications, Honda could potentially use one basic architecture and adapt it for multiple configurations.

That could reduce development costs and shorten the time required to bring the vehicle to market.

Likely specifications of Honda's new engine

There is still no official Honda specification sheet, but the available information points toward a 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine. The petrol version could potentially deliver power in the region of 125 to 140 PS, depending on the final calibration. Torque could remain around the 220 to 230 Nm range, although Honda could choose a different output to suit its target price and transmission.

A mild-hybrid version could use a 48-volt electrical system. A more advanced hybrid version could pair the engine with a larger battery and electric motor, with the combustion engine tuned more aggressively for efficiency.

The CNG version could be detuned slightly or recalibrated for the fuel characteristics of CNG.

None of these figures are confirmed Honda specifications yet. They are reasonable expectations based on the existing Horse engine family and the reported powertrain strategy.

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This engine partnership needs to be viewed as part of Honda's broader India strategy. Honda has confirmed plans to introduce India-focused models from 2028 in both the under-four-metre and mid-size segments, with the upcoming compact SUV expected to sit below the Elevate and take on India's fiercely competitive sub-four-metre SUV market.

The real advantage of Horse's H12 engine is not just its 1.2-litre capacity or 130 PS output, but the flexibility of the architecture, which can support turbo petrol, mild-hybrid, alternative-fuel and CNG applications.

That could allow Honda to offer multiple powertrain versions of the same SUV without developing entirely separate engine programmes. Tata Technologies has also confirmed a major vehicle-engineering programme with a Japanese automaker, and industry reports have linked it to Honda and this upcoming sub-four-metre SUV project.

Expected launch timeline

Honda's official strategy points to 2028 as the starting point for its next wave of India-focused products. The compact SUV is therefore expected around 2028, although Honda has not announced a definitive public launch date.

The model is expected to measure under four metres and target the core Indian compact SUV market. Its final name, design, engine output, transmission and pricing have yet to be officially revealed.