The once-popular Honda Odyssey people mover won’t be making a return Down Under anytime soon, despite the availability of right-hand drive and a hybrid drivetrain.
Honda Australia CEO Jay Joseph told CarExpert in Tokyo that despite the availability of right-hand drive for Honda’s rival for the top-selling Kia Carnival, there are no current plans to reintroduce the long-running nameplate.
“At the moment no, for a number of reasons. It isn’t something that we’re looking at today – there are a number of factors that I won’t go into at the moment,” Mr Joseph said.
“It is possible… [but] the right-hand drive models are somewhat limited. So today, it’s not something that we’re seriously considering.”
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“We do pay attention to those lineups, and we do look to see if they could fill any voids in our lineup, but for a number of reasons it’s not something we would do right now,” Mr Joseph added.
Japanese production of the Odyssey ceased in 2021, also seeing its discontinuation in right-hand drive markets like Australia. The nameplate continued in left-hook markets like China and North America – though the latter gets its own version which is quite different to the Asian model.
Suddenly in 2023, Honda announced the RHD Odyssey would rise once again, at least for Japan, with vehicles sourced from the GAC-Honda joint venture plant in Guangzhou, China.
Japanese-market Odysseys are powered by an e:HEV hybrid system teaming a 107kW/175Nm naturally aspirated 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with a pair of electric motors; the drive motor contributes 135kW/315Nm on its own.
System power is rated at 135kW – like the similar drivetrain fitted to Australian-delivered Civic and CR-V e:HEV models – while fuel consumption is claimed at 19.9-19.6km/L, or roughly 5.0-5.1L/100km.
In its last full year on sale in Australia, the Odyssey was the second best-selling people mover behind the Kia Carnival. For the 2021 calendar year, Honda registered 1143 units versus 5862 examples of the Kia.
However, the MPV market has been soaring since, largely off the back of increased popularity of the Carnival, which returned 10,080 registrations alone in 2024 for 83.4 per cent share of the MPV segment under $70,000.
That trend looks set to continue this year, with segment sales up 7.9 per cent year to date as of 30 September, with the Carnival up 5.0 per cent during the January-September period to 8015 units.
Sadly for fans of the Odyssey, it appears Honda isn’t looking for a slice of that pie in the current landscape. While Mr Joseph wouldn’t confirm what those “number of reasons” impeding the Odyssey’s local re-introduction were, it seems like sourcing vehicles from the Chinese factory may present challenges.
For now, Honda does still offer a seven-seater in the form of select variants of its CR-V mid-size SUV. Though more of a 5+2 than a fully fledged seven seater, the CR-V is available in VTi X7 and L7 grades – though it appears stock of the latter has been exhausted ahead of the launch of an updated model early in 2026.
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