Will Honda go all SUV and ditch nameplate legends like Civic and Accord in Australia?

Honda says it will continue to offer traditional family-orientated passenger cars like the iconic Civic small car and Accord mid-size sedan for the foreseeable future, even though the coming ZR-V SUV is set to become the brand’s local bestseller.

Bucking the trend began by Nissan back in 2016 when it dropped all hatchbacks and sedans including the Pulsar and Altima for SUVs, and since picked up by others including Mitsubishi, Renault and Ford, Japan’s second-largest carmaker and the eighth biggest on the planet believes consumers still want choice.

According to Honda Australia Director, Carolyn McMahon, there are no plans afoot to transition into an SUV-only brand in this market in the foreseeable future.

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“I don’t think so,” she told CarsGuide at the launch of the long-awaited FL5 Civic Type R hot-hatch in Melbourne late last month.

“We want to cater for our wider customer base. Obviously, we want to focus on SUVs, because that’s been the fastest segments of the industry. But with hybrid technology coming in, Civic hybrid demand pushing right out and Accord even though it is low volumes as well… I wouldn’t say we have plans to become an SUV-only brand.”

McMahon isn’t talking the Civic’s success up either, with demand for the Civic e:HEV hybrid seeing waiting times balloon out to mid next year at the earliest, while buyers of the Type R must wait until sometime in 2025.

Honda says it will continue to offer traditional family-orientated passenger cars like the Accord.

Honda Australia General Manager, Customer Experience at Motor Vehicles, Belinda Cusworth, added that consumers have developed an affinity and trust with passenger-car nameplates over the decades that should be nurtured and not discarded.

“Civic is so iconic for the Australian market… the Civic nameplate itself is aligned to the brand overall and we don’t want to lose that,” she said.

“It’s part of who we are. But obviously SUVs is now the focus and the majority of the volume we are going after.”

Honda’s reliance on SUVs is understandable, and it will only grow when the ZR-V lands later next month to take on perennial favourites square-on like the Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5, Mitsubishi Outlander, Nissan X-Trail and Toyota RAV4.

Demand for the Civic e:HEV hybrid is seeing waiting times balloon out to mid next year at the earliest.

The HR-V/CR-V duo account for over 90 per cent of all volume in the first quarter of this year alone, with the latter alone snaring a 75 per cent of that.

To put that into context, Toyota and Mazda’s combined SUV efforts make up around 50 and 66 per cent of their total sales over the same time frame respectively, highlighting the popularity of models like the Yaris, Corolla, Camry, Mazda2 and Mazda3.

Note that the ongoing supply-chain issues that are stymying production worldwide have heavily impacted sales of most companies including Honda, Toyota and Mazda, while the Thai-built CR-V and Accord are the most widely-available Honda product in a range that otherwise is nowadays wholly sourced from Japan.