More affordable Honda hybrids on the way
Hybrids have traditionally been reserved for flagship Honda model variants in Australia, but not for much longer.
Honda is ramping up its challenge to Toyota's dominance of hybrid car and SUV sales by introducing fuel-saving petrol-electric technology on more affordable model variants.
In Australia, hybrid variants of new Hondas are currently restricted to top-of-the-range models, such as the Honda CR-V e:HEV RS – and while the hybrids tend to be better equipped than the flagship petrol versions, the price difference on some models is close to $8000.
In contrast, nearly every Toyota model line available as a hybrid offers the fuel-saving technology on every model grade – and in certain cases for an extra cost of about $2500, with the same equipment level.
Change is on the way for Honda later this year, which intends to expand hybrid availability across several model lines – though it is tight-lipped on whether it will address the wide price gap between petrol and hybrid variants.
“[Honda is] very much sticking to our hybrid strategy. We think it's the right strategy for us. We've got good tech up in hybrid and we'll start to see an expansion of that later on this year as well,” director of Honda Australia Carolyn McMahon told a media briefing last week.
“We're not waiting for [the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard]. Probably later on this year ... through different model updates or different upgrades, you'll start to see [hybrids] expanded down throughout the range.”
The HR-V is expected to commence the roll-out of cheaper hybrid models with the facelifted range due later this year.
Honda is happy with the uptake of its hybrid technology, which is said to exceed its expectations from a year ago – especially now the brand has ironed out issues with stock shortages, which it says impacted its sales in 2023.
“Our current hybrid take-up is around 40 per cent," Ms McMahon said.
"I think this time last year we said we were expecting around 25 per cent, so we're actually farther than what we had originally set that pole for. I think the industry, petrol [uptake vs hybrid] is around 70 per cent. I think we were at 60 per cent. We're quite happy with it.”
Data published by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) shows that over the first three months of this year, 94 per cent of Honda Accords, 31 per cent of Honda Civics, 38 per cent of Honda CR-Vs, 41 per cent of Honda HR-Vs, and 44 per cent of Honda ZR-Vs sold were hybrids.
Honda has overtaken Toyota's luxury-car division Lexus – which sold Australia's first hybrid SUV – is now the country's third-biggest seller of hybrids (1884 sales from January to March 2024), behind Toyota (24,379 sales) and GWM (2616 sales).
At present, hybrid engine options are only available for the most expensive versions of the HR-V, ZR-V, and CR-V. That shouldn’t be the case for too much longer, but there are no plans for a cheaper version of the one-model, hybrid-only 11th-generation Accord.
“Accord is the flagship model and we'll always use that to introduce the new technology and introduce the new features. So at this stage, no plans for a lower specced or more affordable Accord, but certainly on the SUV side, [there will] definitely [be] more affordable hybrids," said Ms McMahon.
