Dongfeng-Honda chose social media for unveiling the first pictures of the updated Elysion minivan for China, which is a sister model of the JDM-spec Honda Odyssey that is sold in other international markets too and is unrelated to the bigger, North American market Odyssey. Like its predecessor, the facelifted Elysion will be built in China by Dongfeng, with the official launch scheduled later this month.
The Elysion nameplate was originally
introduced in Japan for a minivan closely related to the Odyssey, which then
became available in China starting from 2012. In 2015, Honda launched the
second-generation Elysion which is getting a facelift this year including
styling and mechanical tweaks.
The updated model retains the same
silhouette but gains a significantly larger hexagon-shaped grille covering most
of the front bumper. Judging from models like the Voyah Dreamer, and the Lexus
LM, it appears that minivans with huge grilles
are the new trend in China so we guess that local buyers are going to like this
facelift. Other changes include the redesigned LED headlight and taillight
graphics, and slightly tweaked bumpers.
The addition of the e:HEV badge on the
tailgate means that the facelifted Elysion will incorporate Honda’s latest
hybrid system, although it remains unknown if it is related to the i-MMD sport
hybrid system used by its predecessor. The automaker is using the e:HEV badge
for its entire range of electrified models across the world, like in totally
unrelated and smaller Honda Step WGN that was recently teased in Japan, or the
Honda Jazz which is already available in Europe.
Similar to the strategy followed by other
automakers, Chinese buyers have the option between the Honda Elysion
manufactured by Dongfeng, or the Honda Odyssey built by Guangzhou.
