Kicking Tires: 2014 Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid: First Drive

Misleading headline as there was no driving report; just a rehash of the specs all ready posted in another thread:

2014 Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid preview | PriusChat

 

So, no battery info about the regular hybrid version and it is coming months after the plug-in version, like 2 years from now!

2014 Honda Accord Plug-In Hybrid: First Drive

 

A few years back, wasn't the Honda Accord hybrid their very 1st Hybrid to get killed off? ... even earlier than the gen 1 insight got killed? Many feel the gen 2 insight was a step backwards from the Gen 1 Insight. If history repeats itself - it won't be pretty. But I wish them the best.

SGH-I717R ? 2

 

why would the plug-in be released BEFORE the regular hybrid? Does Honda even have a clue anymore in the hybrid game? I don't see the sense in doing this bass ackwards.

 

The first hybrid Accord failed because Honda put it out as a power hybrid to dispel the myth of hybrids being gutless wonders. The only other hybrids available at the time of its introduction were the Insight, Civic, Escape, and the new gen2 Prius.

Its IMA was matched to a 6 cylinder engine and it out performed all the other Accord trims. Fuel savings were there. Just not at the level hybrid shoppers of the time wanted. This was still the fuel efficiency first group. It was also the most expensive model.

Perhaps it would have survived as an Acura.

 

The gen III prius psd is made by toyota not aisin. The honda transmission could very well be made by aisin, but would be different than what Toyota is using.

I assume the hybrid has a different transmission than the phev, and that the phev's may be simpler. A hybrid goes into a competitive space with the camry, fusion, and sonata alread there. The phev will come out about the same time as the fusion energi.

You question should be why has honda taken so long to come up with anouther accord hybrid.

 

Honda at one time was going to bring a diesel Accord to NA after the hybrid for the fuel miser model. Their diesels are supposed to be top notch. This was the early days of the tighter diesel standards though. The public wasn't as accepting of SCR emission systems with urea requirement. So Honda went with a system that didn't require added urea. The problem there is the system has a higher impact on fuel economy. They probably couldn't get the fuel economy high enough to justify the diesel engine cost.

Then the problems with the civic batteries started cropping up. So maybe they decided to take the time to do it right, or were waiting for patents to expire.

More likely its because Honda auto became less focused on efficiency, and have become complacent(Toyota has to a degree also). They relied on their reputation to sell cars. Instead of improving their product to stay ahead of the pack.

 

I'll try again.
Its doubtful it is the same parts as Toyota uses. Aisin makes lots of transmission parts, so they may be making these for Honda.

Since Toyota took psd manufacturing in house with the gen III prius, and ford took it in house with the gen II fusion and c-max, its unlikely honda is using these same parts. Until we know what the transmission looks like, we will not know if the parts are similar to the ones used in the camry and fusion hybrids. The fusion and camry use parts similar to each other and the prius but are slightly different. Nissan altima hybrid used the same hsd parts as the camry hybrid but is now no longer in production.

Toyota and Ford should have a cost advantage on their prius phv and fusion energi psd parts compared to the honda phev, if honda is using aisin similar to the outgoing fusion. Ford claims a cost reduction of 30%, and is able to spread the costs over the c-max hybrid/energi, and the fusion hybrid/energi. Toyota is using the same parts on the high volume prius. Since I doubt these parts will make up much of the cost of a honda plug-in, it won't have much of an impact. The honda accord hybrid is a different matter, and may be at a disadvantage to the camry hybrid and fusion hybrid if they simply use the gen I camry hybrid psd design. This would also likely violate patents, which is why I find it unlikely. Gm uses Aisin parts in their power split architecture in the volt and two mode hybrids, but this is slightly different than toyota's implementation.