Safety not compromised
The body structure is carried over from the gasoline Accord too. That won the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick+ and NHTSA Five Star Overall. So Honda expects the hybrid to earn the rating too.
Something else worth mentioning that comes standard is the wicked-cool Honda LaneWatch feature. A great idea, it’s a view of your right hand blind spot. Being a hybrid driver, chances are good you spend time in busy urban centres with cyclists, skater-boys, long-boarders, pedestrians and those seniors on electric carts flying Blue Jays flags cutting to your inside. From a camera in your right mirror, this feature broadcasts these incursions on the eight-inch display. Consider: It’d also be useful for lane changes on your right, and parallel parking, though we weren’t driving in the right conditions to try them yesterday.
  2014 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring. Click image to enlarge |
Styled much like a Honda Accord
Outside, the noticeable differences are a new rear air diffuser and trunklid spoiler. Both exist for better aerodynamics and didn’t exercise their full utility during our genteel country tour. There were also some purely cosmetic changes to the headlights, taillights, grille, seventeen-inch wheels – plus the de rigueur hybrid badging.
The only real difference inside is the meters. On the left of the display, a bar chart shows the vehicle’s power output, while the fuel and battery charge meters are in a complementing bar format on the right. All these flank the central speedometer whose middle presents assorted bits of information: energy flow, turn signals and road feedback. Anyway, if you like the Accord style, you’ll like the Accord Hybrid.
Fuel efficiency depends greatly on the drivetrain
You probably know that hybrids combine electrical and gasoline power sources. Early hybrids lurched between the two and it’s important for a new player like the Accord to get this right. (Toyota’s had thirteen years to learn with the Prius.) The Accord Hybrid has clearly solved the transition. It’s utterly unnoticeable to the feel of the drive. This smoothness comes from a two-motor hybrid system they call Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive (IMMD).
 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring. Click image to enlarge |
First, its 2.0L i-VTEC Atkinson cycle gasoline engine produces 141 hp at 6,200 rpm and 122-lb ft of torque at 3,500–6,000 rpm. Then there’s the electrics. IMMD has three computer-controlled modes: EV, hybrid and engine. The computer selects them, not you, and is always trying to push the car into EV mode, which is strictly electric. (Even when you coast at very high speeds, it reverts back to EV mode.) In hybrid mode, the electricity is still powering the wheels; the engine is on but it’s generating power to charge the battery. So it’s still technically running on electricity. Only when you push hard do you lock into engine mode. That would be around sixth gear on a traditional transmission.
There is a button you can push to force the EV mode longer, which we used during the competition to minimize engine use when climbing hills, and to keep our stats so low. Mind, it often told us “No power for you!”
The two electric motors are inside the transmission. Indeed, the system acts as the transmission. One motor drives the wheel, the other the generator. The drive motor draws power from the battery at the back and generates torque of 226 lb-ft at its peak. Meanwhile its power control unit increases voltage up to 700 volts. So the drive motor can achieve up to 166 hp.
Okay, now 166 electric hp + 141 gasoline hp = 307 total hp, right? Umm, no.
The two power sources peak at different rpms, so in fact the combined horsepower is never more than about 196. Not exactly track-worthy but fine for commuting. Also, with the hybrid, you get full torque of the electric motor off the mark. Quietly.
The regenerative braking system feels excellent and our test proved it repowers the battery quickly despite any admonishing feedback from the extended EV mode. With light pressure of up to 0.2 g on the brake pedal, it uses the electric brake, regenerating the battery maximally. But then with greater pressure, the friction brakes with hydraulics engage. It’s technology that Honda migrated from its US-only Fit EV for its first application in Canada.
