Among the plethora of announcements Honda made while hosting journalists for the Japan Mobility Show, one of the more curious is that it’s in the end stages of developing an all-new V6 engine. And no, it’s not a rehashed J-Series. This is a ground-up, clean-sheet V6 in the year of our lord 2025, and I for one am puzzled yet excited by the news. Honda has been making the same V6 engine (albeit in about 1 million different variants) since 1996, but it looks like the reign of the legendary J-Series motor may soon be coming to an end.
Right now, there isn’t too much known about the engine. Hell, we don’t even know its displacement. Though I did see it on a stand, and it looked somewhere in the 3.0-liter range, so not terribly big. I mean, look at it — the electric generator bolted to it is nearly as big. It also seems to have all the modern things you’d expect, like dual overhead cams and direct injection, but as for specifics, well, there aren’t any. Honda says it’s coming in the latter half of the 2020s, which is mighty soon, and it’s being built to meet the most stringent environmental regulations the U.S. can throw at it. Who the hell even knows what those will be when this motor comes out?
Full Disclosure: Honda flew me out to Japan, put me up in a couple of hotels and paid for my meals all so I could spend a week with them at the Tokyo Mobility Show.
V6 in an I4 world
I asked Honda’s engineers why they decided to go with a brand new V6 when most automakers have stopped designing them anymore. They said buyers in the U.S. tend to want the displacement and torque a V6 offers, also pointing to our penchant for towing, or at least the pretend desire to tow. I suppose these are all fair points, but I feel like a turbo-four could do all of this just as well. There was also mention of “significant cost reduction” being involved. I suppose Honda is really good at making V6s. I mean, it has far more practice at it than making turbocharged inline-fours, so I can see how the money would work out in its favor.
The engine is going to serve as the basis for Honda’s “Next Generation Large-size Hybrid” vehicle, so right off the bat, it’s going to be paired with a battery and a couple of electric motors. It’ll be a similar setup to what Honda currently uses in the Civic Hybrid, and it’ll add in the eCVT for direct drive to couple gears at both high and low speeds (the Civic only does this at high speeds).
I can say with some certainty that the Next-Gen Large Hybrid won’t exactly be thrilling to drive, but that doesn’t mean Honda isn’t going to try. Engineers told a gaggle of journalists that they were considering including S+ Shift — first seen on the 2026 Prelude — on the crossover when it comes to market to give it a “wild” driving experience.
Just because the engine will show up in this application first doesn’t mean it’s a one-trick pony. While details are anything but concrete, Honda says it may very well end up in Acura products, so engineers clearly aren’t worried about the engine’s refinement. It’s also possible that the motor will not be paired with any sort of electric component in some applications, but no one would tell me what those could be.
Unfortunately for my J-Series lovers out there, I’ve got absolutely no concrete news on if that motor will stick around once this new one comes along. Considering the fact it’s been in production since 1996, it might be getting a bit long in the tooth. Change is good, even if it’s a bit more of the same.
