Honda Odyssey facelift revealed

Honda has quietly taken the wraps off another facelift for its popular Odyssey, images of which have surfaced on its Japanese website.

Several new features will be added to the 2021 Honda Odyssey, which is listed as arriving in fall (spring), including a redesigned front-end, gesture-controlled power doors and an upgraded cabin.

So far only a couple of images and a smattering of info has been revealed as part of the gradual reveal of the upgraded seven-seat people-mover.

It’s not yet clear when the updated Honda Odyssey will arrive Down Under but Honda Austrlaia PR assistant manager, Justin Lacy, said "We should have some more information towards the end of the year," and that the vehicle will "remain an ongoing part of our model line-up."

The most obvious change to the facelifted Odyssey is the redesigned front-end that features a new-look bumper and grille, which is  flanked by reworked headlight clusters.

Inside, the Japanese-built people-mover features a re-sculpted dashboard with a larger floating central touch-screen, and the steering wheel appears different as well.

The other big-ticket upgrade is the fitment of powered sliding side doors operated via gesture control. Passengers simply swipe their hand along the side of the vehicle and the doors should slide open.

The hands-free door operation features an illuminated guide to show passengers how to use the automatically-locking doors.

Honda hasn’t released details on powertrain options yet. The current 2020 Honda Odyssey is powered by a 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine (129kW/225Nm) that drives the front wheels via a CVT automatic transmission. Fuel consumption is rated at 7.6L/100km.

The sleek people-mover is not a big bread-winner for Honda locally, but remains the second most popular people-mover in Australia, with 726 sales and a 15.3 per cent market of the segment thus far in 2020.

The dominant Kia Carnival, which will soon be replaced by an all-new model, currently commands 57.7 per cent of the people-mover market with 2740 sales this year.

The two-model Honda Odyssey range starts at $39,140 for the VTi and tops out at $48,740 for the VTi-L.

There have been unconfirmed reports in Japan that Honda may not develop a new-generation Odyssey, leaving the facelifted model to solider on.

Honda Australia’s shift to an agency sales model by July 2021 will not affect volume-selling SUVs like the CR-V and HR-V, but will see less popular models such as the Jazz and City compact cars axed from the range.