All-New 10th Gen Honda Accord Not Coming To Malaysia Until Late-2019

If you are hoping for the all-new tenth generation 2018 Honda Accord that’s currently on sale in the US to be coming to Malaysia this year, it looks like you will be in for a long wait of around one more year.

According to information gathered from an investors’ newsletter published by RHB Research Institute, which tracks the performance of DRB-Hicom’s shares, Honda is not expected to launch any new model in 2018.

DRB-Hicom is a local partner of Honda Malaysia, and owns 34 percent of the joint venture.

The report added that the all-new Accord will only go on sale in Malaysia in 2019. At the moment Honda Malaysia’s plant in Pegoh, Melaka, which assembles not just engines but all Honda models sold in Malaysia except for the UK-made Civic Type R and Japan-made Odyssey, is still running near its maximum capacity of 110,000 units per annum.

Separately, we understand that Honda Automobile Thailand’s plant in Ayutthaya has yet to throttle down output of the current generation Accord and it doesn’t seem like work to retool the plant to produce the all-new Accord will begin anytime soon.

Typically, there is a three- to six-month gap between an all-new model’s introduction at its regional mother plant, which in this case is Ayutthaya, and introduction in other smaller markets in the region like Malaysia.

Besides, Honda Malaysia had just invested in upgrading the current generation Accord with the Honda Sensing suite of advanced driving assistance systems as recently as November last year.

As such, we don’t expect the all-new Accord to be launched in Malaysia until the second half of 2019.

Currently, the all-new Accord is only made in two plants in Honda’s top-two largest markets – Ohio in Marysville, USA and Guangdong in Guangzhou, China. The model is not even available in Honda’s home market of Japan yet.