New Honda Accord confirmed for Oz

Despite the continuing slide in passenger car sales, the 10th-generation Honda Accord will be launched in Australia late in 2019.

Honda is under no illusions the Accord will be a big seller in a market besotted with SUVs and pick-ups, but the mid-size sedan’s strong history in Australia has swayed the business case in its favour.

The Honda Accord has been on sale here for more than 30 years, including 12 years as two distinctly different cars simultaneously, the Accord and the Accord Euro.

Only the Honda Civic nameplate has had a longer run for the brand in Australia.

“We just think the Accord name has been in the market for decades and it’s our flagship sedan,” said Honda Australia director Stephen Collins.

“Despite that [medium sedan] segment just continuing to drop – I think year to date it’s down 30 per cent again – we just think it’s an important model.

“So, we are working to finalise that ... it’s taking it’s time, but our plan is to launch it late next year.”

Sales of the ninth-generation Accord make dire reading. Just 60 have been sold so far in 2018.

“The idea is we have it [Accord] as a flagship sedan, so we will pack it full of features and technology,” Collins promised.

“The concept is we keep it — it’s a flagship, it’s an important nameplate, it’s a global nameplate.”

Unveiled in mid-2017 in the USA, the latest Honda Accord is available there with a choice of 1.5-litre and 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engines, as well as a petrol-electric hybrid system.

The Australian line-up is yet to be detailed, although Collins was willing to concede the hybrid was a chance.

“You could certainly mount that argument. We just have to make sure we price it and position it to make sure we sell a reasonable number of them,” Collins said.

Honda Australia has tried to sell a hybrid Accord previously, but dumped the expensive petrol-electric model from its range in 2016.

While the 10th-generation Accord is currently built in Honda’s US plant, that factory does not produce right-hand drive versions, so Australian Accord supply is most likely to come from Thailand, as per the ninth-generation, which is still sold here.

“We would prefer to have it in a shorter period of time [than late 2019] … but we will get it as soon as we can,” said Collins.

Meanwhile, Honda, as we have reported previously, has stated it will soon add more seven-seat models to its CR-V line-up.

“We are looking at launching an incremental variant which we will have more news on later this year,” said Honda Australia customer and communications general manager Scott McGregor.