2024 Honda ZR-V to drive sales boost as EVs remain off-limits

UPDATE: Honda ZR-V driven in Oz

We've had our first local taste of Honda's new medium SUV in both hybrid and petrol guise – head over to the link below for the full review.

Our original story, below, continues unchanged

July 15: Honda ZR-V to drive local sales boost

At the media launch of Honda's new ZR-V, there was palpable excitement from the management team – and rightly so. The well-known brand finally has an all-new model to fight in Australia’s most popular medium SUV segment – it even packs a hybrid powertrain.

And the best bit? The price is right. That’s a crucial detail if a fixed-price agency model is to work.

As excellent as the Civic small car is (having outgunned larger rivals in a Wheels comparison test), evidently sales have suffered; Honda delivered just 38 hatches in June. With a range-topping ZR-V hybrid coming in $100 cheaper than the petrol-electric Civic and about $1500 less than a front-drive Toyota RAV4 Cruiser (drive-away), the ZR-V has a leg-up from the off.

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Although Honda managing director Carolyn McMahon denied the Civic small car’s pricing was too high to be competitive, her confidence in the ZR-V is well-placed.

“We've already taken over 1000 orders, and now have back orders for the hybrid until December. We're trying really hard to get more supply – I was just in Thailand a few days ago, and we’ve been able to secure more volume toward the end of this year.”

Honda’s aspirations? A gradual return to form. It won’t be the circa-30K annual numbers of last decade, instead a solid 20,000 cars each year. That said, Honda still faces an uphill battle with only 6758 deliveries this year. The vast majority of sales are run-out CR-Vs, (5022) and over the same period Honda has only shifted 567 Civics.

“We've got to catch up, we have a lot of back orders to fulfil. And then – once that regular supply is in place – we’ll be at 20,000 sales annually, that’s where we aim to be in the next one-to-two years”, McMahon told Whichcar.

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Conspicuously absent from Honda’s local plans (and global, for that matter) are EVs and plug-in hybrids, with nothing in the ‘medium term’ hitting showrooms with any sort of claimed WLTP driving range. Honda’s answer is that it isn’t the brand for those looking to buy an EV right now.

"When we look at our customer base and what our customers – both in metro and rural areas – want, we think the hybrid-electric vehicles that we have at the moment are the right thing for our customers”, said McMahon.

It’s all well and good claiming hybrids are the best solution today, but even rival brands that have been slow on EV uptake – Toyota, for example – are realising it’s time to get a wiggle on.

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We love the Honda e, but it never came to Oz and didn't exactly set sales records

Rapid in its European transition yet slow locally is a good way to describe Volkswagen’s EV strategy, though even VW is predicting 5000 sales next year from four electric models – two medium SUVs (ID.4 and ID.5) due mid-year, with a van and small EV later on.

Fast-mover Tesla has cornered the early adopters who are voting with their wallets – the American EV specialist delivered 5560 Model Ys in June; more medium SUVs than Honda’s managed to shift thus far in 2023.

The ZR-V will be a welcome boost for Honda’s bottom line, as will the CR-V due later this year. We’ll have a local ZR-V review live next week to confirm if it performs well enough to challenge our class benchmark, the Nissan X-Trail.