Honda bring back the Accord, but it’s all-new and it’s a hybrid this time round. Does it live up to our invariably high expectations?
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
‘Hybrid’ is a buzz-word today. Everyone wants to be cleaner and greener and more electric; with true renewable energy, sadly, never really harnessed. Some manufacturers even strapped on start-stop to 6.0-litre V8s and labelled them hybrids for the authorities to sign off benefits. Yet, some others do it right.
It’s not about saving 0.2 per cent of petrol by shutting down a barely-400-PS 6,000-cc eight-cylinder monster. It’s about abandoning Otto and adopting Atkinson, complete with the batteries in his backpack and doing in one round what others do in two; to make sure you’re actually trying to save the planet and not just a few hundred injections of fuel.
So, with the Honda Accord already a reputed name, what does the new Hybrid bring in that makes its case even stronger in this day and age? For starters, it has style.
The Accord Hybrid may wear a Honda badge, but swap it for a double-slash and it would pass off as an Acura in the US of A without a blink. The front end integrates the reminiscence of the FCX Clarity as well as a more modern Acura TSX — or TLX, as it’s now called — with not-too-subtle hints of the NSX thrown in for good measure. What’s with all the Acura-ness? Well, those LED headlamps look like few in existence today and are one of the most outstanding features on the car.
Automatic full-LED units they are, one seamless cluster of light-bearing diodes that include low beam, high beam, running light strips and turn indicators. Flanking the new face grille, it makes the Accord Hybrid look very familiar, but absolutely modern; akin to the calculator app in Android Marshmallow, except the Accord is still three-dimensional.
The side profile, too, is familiar but looks sharpened up. It’s a large car, at 4,933 mm long and 1,849 mm wide, matching dimensions with much more expensive European executive saloons. It runs 18-inch wheels with 235/45 R18 rubber; low profile it is, yes, but as wide as truly needed. The chrome trim details accentuate its luxury intent, whereas the boot-lip spoiler tells of its aerodynamic efficiency and apparent need for downforce.
The powertrain in the Accord Hybrid is a combination of an Atkinson-cycle 2.0-litre i-VTEC petrol engine that dreams about a better earth and a set of rather potent dual electric motors that Honda call i-MMD or Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive. Together they deliver a net peak of 215 PS and, by my estimate, just about 350 Nm of peak torque. Though the individual specs speak otherwise, note that the engine is primarily working as a generator for the 1.3-kWh battery pack that powers the dual electric motors. Power delivery is handled by an e-CVT sending drive to the front wheels. No conventional torque converter or pulleys on the job here.
