CEO of Honda Australia has boldly announced that he believes in it CR-V is the best car in its segment and expects growth by expanding hybrid availability in the new year.
At a media lunch in Melbourne, Honda Australia CEO Jay Joseph made the claim in response to a question about whether there is a brand or model in the market that the company uses as a benchmark.
“I’ve said this internally – objectively I think the CR-V is a better car than all of its competitors. In the States the CR-V sells better than the competition,” Mr Joseph said.
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“It is an oversimplification to say that the CR-V should be the number one vehicle in its segment based on product alone, because there is so much more to it.”
“How high is the brand awareness? How high is the willingness to buy? How large and visible is the network?”
“There are so many factors at play that I take inspiration from competitors who objectively and subjectively cannot compete with us – we should meet them in the market.”
Mr Joseph said more broadly that Honda Australia expected sales growth of 10 per cent in 2026, following growth of around 10 per cent in 2025 – largely due to the updated CR-V and ZR-V models, both of which will offer expanded hybrid availability from the first quarter of next year.
The CR-V is Honda’s best-selling model in Australia, and at the end of November its January-November sales were up 2.4 percent compared to 2024 to 5210 units.
In comparison, its best-selling nemesis – the Toyota RAV4 – recorded a whopping 45,909 sales in the same period (down 14.3 percent year-over-year).
The RAV4 has nearly 10 times the CR-V’s market share (21.0 versus 2.4 percent), and there are a number of other segment competitors with significantly higher volumes – including the Mazda CX-5, Mitsubishi Outlander and Hyundai Tucson, among others.
Not much has been revealed about the updated MY26 CR-V, which is due to arrive Down Under towards the end of the first quarter of 2026 (March-April), but the reintroduction of the SUV nameplate for Japan provides some strong clues.
The Honda CR-V is expected to return to the Japanese market in February after initially being dropped from the domestic lineup due to low sales of the previous model.
At launch, the CR-V will launch in Japan in premium e:HEV RS and e:HEV RS Black Edition trim levels, with both featuring the real-time all-wheel-drive hybrid drive promised for Australia in 2026.
Other key new additions include the availability of the said Black Edition model, which features contrasting black lower fascia, black alloy wheels and gloss black interior accents, as well as an updated Honda Connect infotainment system with Google Built-in services (including Google Maps and Google Assistant).
Rounding out the potential upgrades for Australia are Honda Sensing 360 safety assists, which expand the CR-V’s safety lineup with front cross-traffic alert, active lane change prevention (or blind spot assist vs. warning) and active lane change assist.
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