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With every new hybrid, Honda inches closer to normal. If that was the goal, Honda's decision to use the opposite approach used on the Insight paid off. Much like the undistinguished styling (look closely for pentagonal alloy wheels, a lip spoiler, and a tiny "Hybrid" badge), the driving experience was designed to blend in with the Accord norm. Don't look for the confusing sensations of a continuously variable transmission; all Accord Hybrids use a conventional 5-speed automatic. Instead of the typical shrink-job applied to every hybrid car's engine thus far, the Accord's V6 carried over as-is, and the electric motor's extra 15 horsepower (on top of an already considerable 240) more than makes up for the 117-pound weight gain. The Accord can humiliate the Prius by more than three seconds in the 0-60 derby. 255 horsepower also flies over the heads of the V6-powered Nissan Altima and Subaru Legacy. Triple aces: fastest Accord, fastest hybrid, and possibly fastest in class.
But much of the tire smoke coming from this car will probably be from changing direction faster than the squealing Michelins can handle. The electric power steering, presumably chosen for its 0.5 MPG savings, is also a little number than a normal Accord's, removing some car-driver communication. This is still a front-drive car, and at 3,501 pounds, a heavy one. Honda may want to milk those horsepower statistics for all they're worth, because performance is hardly defined by acceleration alone.
Enough with the marketing claims; let's get to the real question on everyone's mind: gas mileage. The EPA claims an impressive 29 city, 37 highway, and while the EPA is usually an obsolete governmental nuisance to be ignored, the estimates point to a pattern among Honda hybrids: the highway figure is higher, just like on any other car. Unlike Toyota's hybrids, IMA lacks the ability to run on the battery alone. Its primary trick seems to be Auto Stop, better thought of as red-light protection: the engine shuts off at about 10 MPH as you brake to a stop. Never idling means never getting zero MPG, though trying to save gas this way will get you nowhere fast.
Auto Stop does save drivers from the most wasteful of times, but in most cases the electric half is only awaken during hard driving. When you order a shot of acceleration, the car typically calls upon the transmission first, then the engine, then finally the electric motor if necessary. In the interests of conservation, shouldn't that order be exactly reversed? Honda transmissions have always in favor of premature kickdowns, and in addition to being frustrating, it's wasteful. With so much torque on hand from two ample power sources, downshifts should be a last resort. While we're carping on the transmission, Honda again omitted a proper shiftgate detent between D and D3, ensuring that countless freeway drivers will be burning gas and tearing apart their engine's internals in third gear instead of fifth. Honda's engineers should have thought about making existing parts work more harmoniously before adding new ones.
For a change, Honda calibrated the throttle conservatively. The power is there and there's obviously a lot, but you must shove the pedal deeply to access it, which makes the car feel unresponsive. The brake pedal is just the opposite, calling for gentle presses to offset the slight grabbiness of its regeneration antics. And in cases where you must inch along in traffic between 0 and 10 MPH, the constant starting and stopping of the engine hardly seems worth it. (The Prius doesn't have this problem.) Auto Stop also adds the quirk of needing to turn off the car with the transmission in Drive, since shifting to Park (or Reverse, 2, or 1) awakens the engine.
But don't get caught up in the differences, because 90% of the time, the hybridized Accord feels like the others. The steering is light, the engine accelerates with smooth silence (the electric motor in absolute silence), and the disc brakes stop the car short. The ride is on the sporty side, and the car, as a whole, is easy and painless to drive. There's even a hill-holder feature to stop you from rolling back on an incline, and what the electric steering takes away in feel, it partly makes up for with no-effort parking. You even learn to accept the quirky steering, pedals, and Auto Stop functions as part of the car's character. Each of them brings a little psychic satisfaction, since they all serve as distinct signals of saving gas.
The final trick up the Accord Hybrid's sleeve is Variable Cylinder Management, which shuts down the three rear cylinders under steady cruising or braking. As on Honda's Odyssey, it steps aside under even mild acceleration to ensure it never gets in the way. It's hard to even detect its operation aside from the "ECO" indicator light on the dashboard. VCM is unrelated to the hybrid system and accounts for the only real savings of the Accord Hybrid in freeway driving.
For whatever anecdotal evidence is worth, my time with the Accord included a run from Southern California to Northern and back, mostly at a steady 80 MPH, air conditioner off. The numbers: 30 MPG on the way up, 28 coming down. Good but hardly remarkable, and pretty much what can be expected of a normal V6 Accord. (Did VCM really help?) The power-flow gauges in the dashboard laid dormant throughout my entire trip, signaling that this cruise was an engine-only solo. I hope the battery enjoyed its six-hour naps.
This will be the case with any hybrid, of course. No battery pack has enough juice to sustain highway speeds; with such little braking or coasting, where would it get its energy? The letdown wasn't the consumption, but rather the range: even on the longer of my two runs, the gas light started blinking at 380 miles. Very average, and even more of a disappointment in light of the 649-mile range Honda implies in its sales brochure. At the pump, I discovered the reason: Honda has the alarm sounding when the tank still has four gallons remaining. The fine line between conservative and paranoid has been crossed. Sure, you can ignore the warning, but who would? If I had set the cruise control to 70 MPH instead of 80, all these numbers would surely improve, but not significantly.
And the city? On a tankful of mixed driving, I got 26 MPG. Anytime city mileage comes close to freeway mileage, that's an accomplishment.
Not much new to report here. Contrasting with Toyota's move with the Prius, Honda didn't time-warp back to the ‘80s and turn the center stack into an Atari display. There's a little token gauge cluster within the speedometer circle: a horizontal bar graph for charging, another for assist, one battery gauge, and that's all, folks. Honda doesn't advertise this car's hybrid-ness even to its driver. All other ergonomic cues are direct Accord transplants, with clear gauges and displays and high-quality controls. Ordering the optional navigation system rearranges all the radio/climate controls into a less intuitive layout, and what happened to the tick-tock in the turn signals?
Seating is comfortable enough for five and remains uncompromised compared to other Accords, especially thanks to the headroom benefits of having no sunroof. To house the rear-mounted battery pack, Honda instead decided to penalize the trunk, which shrinks from 14 to 11 cubic feet. The back seat's folding ability was also lost. Those living in summer climates have nothing to worry about: instead of earlier hybrids whose AC compressors quit whenever the engine did, the Accord's can switch to running on electric if need be. Yes, the Accord's air conditioner is a hybrid itself.
Knowing the hybrid powertrain would exalt a price premium, Honda wisely positioned this model as the top-of-the-line Accord. Power everything, 6-disc CD changer, XM radio, heated leather seats, automatic climate control, side and side-curtain airbags, antilock brakes with electronic brake distribution, and traction control are all standard; the only option is navigation for $2,000. Every car that has ever run on electricity has carried a shocking sticker, and this $30,505 Hybrid is no exception. That's $3,290 above the identically-equipped Accord EX V6.
Which brings us to this Accord's undoing: if we assume an EX V6 averages 22 MPG and a Hybrid 28, that points to annual savings of about $234. $3,290 divided by $234 = 14 years to recoup the difference. There are a few other factors here, one being the $2,000 tax break, whose dollar benefit depends on your income bracket. On the debit side, there's the cost of the battery replacement (the battery is warranted for 8 years), which some estimate to be as high as $3,000 but could significantly decrease as the technology advances on its progress curve. Still, 14 years is a long time coming.
The poor value factor is something shared by all hybrids, but the more popular ones compensate in two ways: by giving satisfaction of being the planet's savior, and by endowing the driver with the image of the same. So who is the Accord Hybrid supposed to appeal to? Its engine carries the coveted ULEV rating, but having an MPG average in the high 20s ain't exactly saving the whales. And with styling so close to an Accord's, no one will even know you're trying. It's a little faster than a normal Accord, but a "performance hybrid" is a pretty lousy idea even at the concept stage. A hybrid powertrain adds far too much weight (285 pounds, in this case) and cost per gain in horsepower to be a practical performance tool. And was anyone calling the V6 Accord slow? A 4-cylinder Accord Hybrid would have been a much better idea.
When all is said and done, what do you call a hybrid that outruns both its 4-cylinder and V6 counterparts while using less fuel than either? A success, that's what. This car works, and calling it anything less would be unfair. Only three things bother me, all subjective: the price, the curious philosophy behind it, and the nagging feeling that Toyota could have done more.
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