2016 Honda Accord Hybrid review, test drive

What is it?

Honda's Accord is a car Indian motorists are extremely familiar with. First introduced in 2000, Honda sold three successive generations of the Accord here before skyrocketing costs and a drop in demand caused it to be withdrawn from Indian showrooms. But the Accord is now back in its latest guise and with hybrid power. In fact, the Hybrid will be the only Accord you can buy as Honda has no plans to launch a conventional petrol-driven car. 

Honda has taken the hybrid-only route for the Accord partly to showcase its technology and partly to take advantage of the lower excise duties and VAT on hybrid cars. But unlike the Camry which is assembled here, the Accord won’t get the FAME tax break offered to locally produced cars. The Accord is a full import and there’s no concession in import duty, and this is what will make it considerably more expensive than the Camry.

But what exactly does the Accord Hybrid have to offer? Well, to begin with, it looks nicer than the earlier car. There's less flab when compared to the eight-generation Accord, the 'bloated' nose of the earlier car has given way to a more compact one and while it looks a bit too generic from the rear, there's a nice flow to it when looked at from side on. The 'blued'-over details, meant to convey that this is a hi-tech hybrid, however, aren't very cool; they only look like afterthoughts. The new ninth-generation Accord is also a bit more compact and is built on a slightly shorter wheelbase. Honda says this has been done to make the new car more agile, and it is stiffer by around 40 percent too.

What makes this car truly unique, however, is the two-motor hybrid system. Combining a 143hp 2.0-litre i-VTEC Atkinson Cycle engine along with two electric motors, the Accord Hybrid achieves a peak combined output of 215 horsepower. Known as Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive (i-MMD) the system has three operating modes – Hybrid Drive, EV Drive, and Engine Drive.

Under most conditions, the vehicle operates in a similar manner to a range extender. In the Hybrid Drive mode, the petrol engine operates as a generator, providing electricity to the electric motor and charging the batteries. Unlike other hybrids where the engine drives the wheels, in the Accord, the front wheels are driven by the electric motor alone. The engine has no direct link to the front wheels and since power is being sent via electric motors, there is no need for a conventional transmission. In the EV Drive mode, the Accord Hybrid can also operate on electric power alone for a limited range of 2km, with the engine shut off. What makes the Accord Hybrid unique, however, is the Engine Drive mode, where the engine drives the wheels. Used mainly during medium- to high-speed cruising (after 70kph), only one fixed gear ratio corresponding to fifth or sixth gear is used here, and while the engine has sufficient power, an electric assist is sometimes used here too in a effort to provide the most amount of performance.

This makes it both a series (Hybrid Drive mode) and parallel (Engine Drive mode) hybrid – truly unique. What's even more radical is the fact that the Accord Hybrid is constantly shifting between these three distinct drive operations, optimising fuel efficiency on the fly.

The Accord Hybrid's two electric motors cover different functions. The propulsion motor converts the kinetic energy of the decelerating vehicle into electric energy. The other motor, known as the generator motor, collects energy made by the gasoline engine.

The car also gets frequency selective dampers, as on the earlier generation Mercedes C-class, that alter stiffness to suit either corners or straights. Honda's LaneWatch system is also on the car and it uses a camera to illuminate the blind spot in rear-view mirrors.