New Honda Avancier cutting-edge family SUV to rival Hyundai Santa Fe and Skoda Kodiaq

Honda has teased a brand new SUV that won’t be just any new addition to its range. The Honda Avancier will be the first new car with the Japanese company’s next-generation hybrid powertrains, interior technology and design language. 

The Avancier name has previously been used on a China-only crossover SUV, but soon it will be applied to a brand new seven-seater for the global market. It’ll start production in right-hand-drive form for sales in Japan and Australia next year, so there’s potential that it could be sold in the UK. 

This new family-sized model would give Honda a rival to seven-seater SUVs like the Skoda Kodiaq and Hyundai Santa Fe, a growing market it has not had a contender in before in the UK. If the Avancier was to be sold in the UK, it would be priced above the current CR-V at somewhere around £50,000.

What will this new Honda look like?

The new Honda Avancier will be our first look at Honda’s next-generation styling and technology, which already appears to be a big step on from the models of today.

The most striking angle previewed is the rear, which looks dramatically different from any current Honda. Parallels could be drawn with Range Rover due to the two thin upright lighting elements, but it’s clear that the Avancier sits them within a very different body defined by a strong, angular D-pillar and a crisp line running down the car’s side.

Another teaser showing some of the car’s front-end lighting previews yet more links to Land Rover products. The thin horizontal lighting and defined edges running along the sides of the bonnet suggest a similar sense of solidity; it could even feature a clamshell-style bonnet.

It’ll run the new Honda Hybrid system

6

While we don’t yet know any official specifications of the car’s powertrain, we do know that it’ll feature a next-generation Honda hybrid system.

Building on the company’s current e:HEV technology, this system will work by using a small petrol engine largely as a generator, leaving the bulk of the propulsion to come from a pair of electric motors. One of these will feed the car’s battery pack acting as a small generator, while the second will drive the front wheels directly.

In larger and higher-specification models like the Avancier, the number of electric motors could actually increase to three with a further e-motor mounted on the rear axle to achieve all-wheel drive. 

Honda says this new era of powertrains will be the most efficient of its type – a claim that could well be accurate given the already impressive numbers achievable by Honda’s existing e:HEV technology.

What about the revolution inside?

This new era of Honda models previewed by the Avancier will also incorporate a fundamentally redesigned interior, with the brand’s new Asimo user interface to be rolled out across the range. This was a system developed in tandem with Honda’s ambitious – but now cancelled – 0 Series electric car programme, yet it will still see the light of day in these new hybrid-powered models.

As well as offering greater connectivity and new digital features, the new Asimo interface will run on larger, brighter and more responsive displays. In some cases, these will be spread across the entire dash-front in a Mercedes-style panel, but the style of its application in the new Avancier remains to be seen. 

An ambition of the Honda 0 Series programme was to reach the point of the cars being fully ‘software defined’ - meaning that features and capabilities were governed by updatable software rather than fixed hardware. We don’t yet know whether this initial batch of new Hondas will hit this target from the off.

Beyond the tech, we also expect to see a sense of simplicity in the overall interior design. Honda is promising the use a smaller range of higher quality materials and fabrics, giving its future models a cleaner, yet still warm and inviting cabin feel. 

Get the latest and best car news and reviews, first! Follow Auto Express on Google today