Honda Drops V-6 for 10th-Gen Accord Launching This Year

Honda announces its all-new, 10^th-generation ʼ18 Accord, featuring what the automaker claims is the first-ever 10-speed automatic transmission in a front-wheel-drive car, launches later this year.

The midsize sedan’s available powertrains will include two high-torque, high-efficiency turbocharged powerplants, a 4-cyl., 1.5L direct-injected DOHC Turbo with dual variable cam timing, mated to either a Honda CVT or 6-speed manual transmission; and a 4-cyl., 2.0L direct-injected DOHC Turbo with i-VTEC valvetrain, paired with the 10AT or 6MT.

Also available is the next generation of Honda’s 2-motor hybrid powertrain technology, which operates without a conventional automatic transmission.

While the automaker is discontinuing a V-6 engine in the Accord’s conventional (non-hybrid) grades, the move is not without precedent in the U.S. midsize-car group. Hyundai went 4-cyl.-only with the launch of the ʼ11 Sonata in 2010 and others have followed, notably Chevrolet, whose ninth-gen Malibu only offers a 4-cyl.

Honda's V-6 Accord engines have made WardsAuto’s 10 Best Engines list five times in the past 15 years, including the outgoing Accord’s 3.5L SOHC V-6 in 2013 and 2014.

“With these three advanced new powertrains, the 10th-generation Accord will be the most fun-to-drive, refined and fuel-efficient Accord yet,” Jeff Conrad, senior vice president and general manager-American Honda, says in a news release. “Just as the new Honda Civic injected new energy into the compact-car segment, we expect this all-new 2018 Accord will make people rethink the midsize sedan.”

The ʼ18 Accord’s 1.5L and 2.0L turbo engines will be produced at Honda’s Anna, OH, engine plant. The sedan’s CVT transmission will be manufactured at the automaker’s Russells Point, OH, plant, and its new 10-speed AT will be produced at Honda’s Tallapoosa, GA, plant. Honda recently announced a $149 million investment in the Russells Point and Tallapoosa plants.

– with Christie Schweinsberg in Detroit