For a chunk of time in the 2000s and early 2010s, it was at least ironically hip to drive something square. Think Scion xB and Nissan Cube, weird and unashamedly boxy cars trading on pure practicality. With the demise of the Kia Soul, the American market is devoid of new toaster cars, but possibly not for long. A new report from Automotive News claims that the Honda Element is coming back from the dead with hybrid power.
Production of the new Element is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2029 in central Ohio, people with knowledge of the plan told Automotive News.
The plant will serve as the sole global production hub, with Honda targeting nearly 100,000 vehicles in the first full year of output, the people said.
The Element was a weird car. According to the product brief, Honda wanted to cook up something that would appeal to young Generation Y men and, um, “more aggressive females.” In short, non-conformists into partying, extreme sports, and staying active. This resulted in the gloriously unhinged slide you see below.
Yes, seriously. From the low-res X-Games insert to the phrase “three reality principle” appearing on the same page as “What’s going on in the Mountain Dew Airstream?”, I couldn’t have made this up if I tried. However, Honda ran with it and produced an absolutely fascinating crossover.
Riding on CR-V bones, the Element was wonderfully abnormal. It had half-sized, rear-hinged rear doors like an extended cab pickup truck, a split tailgate, and an available moonroof for stargazing because the seats folded flat into a bed. Or, if you needed more space, you could hang the rear seats against the sides of the cargo area and enjoy enough height to transport a sportbike inside the crossover. Initially, the fenders were unpainted molded-in-color plastic so you could lean your mountain bike against them, and rubberized flooring ensured easy wipe-down. [Ed note: WIPE down, not HOSE down – Pete]
The end result was a cult classic, one that never sold in truly massive volumes but filled certain use cases extremely well. Older buyers loved it because it was so easy to get in and out of, you know. People with dogs loved the ease of cleaning, camper conversions exist for the outdoorsy, and the tall cargo area was great for all sorts of gear. The Element was a nifty idea, and it now seems ready to come into its prime.
In the 15-ish years since the Element was discontinued, a lot has changed. The compact crossover utility vehicle is now just the normal style of car, having long since taken over from the midsize sedan. Boxy is in, cladding is back, and the sheer buyer pool now exists to sustain a second compact crossover if it’s different enough from say, the CR-V. What’s more, the Automotive News report is making an unusual claim about the future Element:
Positioned between the subcompact HR-V and the compact CR-V, the revived Element is expected to appeal to younger buyers and urban adventurers.
Could this mean we’re in for a cheaper C-segment Honda crossover with the added boon of hybrid efficiency? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. A lot can change in three years, but it seems that Element fans might finally be getting the second generation they’ve craved. Now if you’ll excuse me, I feel the sudden urge to air up the tires on my BMX and blast some SR-71.
Top graphic image: Honda
My brother has traveled around the US for the last roughly year living in one off and on. It’s worked well! He’s also 5’5 so that helps
We bought an Element new in 2006 w/ AWD when my wife and I were about 40 with a 4 year old and 2 big dogs. It was an absolutely loved workhorse that we drove into the ground for 13 years. Great for roadtrips and hauling the dogs around. The rear seats sat higher so my daughter had a great view. Used to routinely pop out the rear seats, and you could haul a huge amount of stuff around. I always expected Honda to electrify it as it seemed like the perfect form factor. Glad to hear another generation will get these (never did see any young x-athletes driving one, though).
Every time I’ve seen a car described as something along the lines of:
“Honda wanted to cook up something that would appeal to young Generation Y men and, um, “more aggressive females.”
old people buy them at 2-3x the rate of the intended market.
Am I crazy or am I the only one who saw more geezers driving hamster cars than mid 20s parkour practicing graphic designers that rock climb on the weekend?
I remember wanting one of these when they were introduced. We had dogs and a kid and the easy clean floor seemed like a no brainer.
BUT, I wanted something with BETTER gas mileage than my Corolla wagon, and this wasn’t it, by a long shot. Skip the hybrid drivetrain at this point (it was needed 20 years ago,) and go straight for an EV platform.
Agreed. Honda should do something with all that R&D they did for EVs, especially if they aren’t bringing this out until 2030 model year.
This is an excellent idea. We need one of you auto designers hypothetical drawings of what it might look like.
I’m not in the market for the foreseeable future—2019 SportWagen is wagoning just fine—but I will 100% seek this out in ~2035.
Unless Mazda brings back the -5 with sliding doors. Maximum practicality!
I would love for the Toyota Sienta or Honda Freed to make their way over. Since they’re being made already, it’s a lower lift than the 5 coming back.
Oh I like this. A plugin or range extended version would be nice but I expect that it will be a mild hybrid. And probably big and carpeted.
Is cladding back, or is Bodies By Tupperware the new hot thing?
I remember too many claddinpieces that would fall off revealing more rust than you can imagine from salt trapped beneath it.
Body By Tupperware I like, cladding over rust not so much, and goofy wheel arch decorations with the angles I despise. It’s like the design was frozen in place before they picked the track and the tires. Do they think that we think that they are that stupid? Well yes, just not like that. When did fake tack on flares become a thing? Why not go full faux off road and racer look and randomly duct tape bodywork on?
Oh excuse me. There’s an underperforming cloud that needs shouting at.
Body By Tupperware Is probably wrong but it’s to right not to use.
I’m excited. But I also get fired up when I see mulch is on sale so there’s that.
We get free mulch here, but often it has lots of Barbie doll arms legs and heads mixed in. That may be a negative, or not, depending on how you feel about that sort of thing. My daughter liked finding them, she made a necklace of doll legs, but I never saw her wear it.
Years back my town gave away tons of free mulch out following a huge ice storm that downed hundreds of trees and thousands of limbs. Two years later? Shotgun fungus dots all over people’s cars and houses. Which are nearly impossible to clean off.
Did you hear about the Divorce Barbie? Reality for those young women.
It comes with all of Kens’ stuff!
“You gotta mulch, Jerry…you got to.”
“Patio furniture is on sale”
-Kramer
I just looked up the pricing of the original Element and was surprised – I hadn’t remembered that the Element was cheaper than the CR-V.
For the 2003 model year, the Element started at $16.1k and the CR-V started at $18.9k. That’s kind of surprising to me because these days it feels like anything “outdoorsy” styled gets a price premium. Between that, and the expectation that the Element would sell in smaller numbers, I’d expect an Element to cost more than a CR-V this time around.
Elements are GREAT vehicles…. BUTTTTT… they sorta get crap MPG and they can’t really tow much.
I really wish Honda would make something like a Chevy Astro, just give me a decently sized but not HUGE van with AWD and a towing capacity of 5000+lbs. Hybrid would be fine too.
I don’t tow with mine, but it gets a half a mile per gallon less than my 11 Fusion SE. I’m looking at getting rid of the Ford and keeping the older Element.
They also had a really low weight limit. They were heavier than a CRV, so basically you could carry 4 people or 2 people and their stuff, but not both.
People pay attention to those?
Neat.
Just don’t make the rear doors dumb like on the original. The old Element would’ve been a cool car for couples with one or maybe two kids if it had normal back doors.
The rear-hinged part of it made it a nightmare to put a kid in a rear-facing car seat. And the fact that the rear door wouldn’t open without opening the front door was annoying. Say just one adult is driving two kids around – someone has to go around to open the front passenger door to let the kid out of the rear passenger side. Or the kid needs to climb through to the driver side, which is maybe fine, except if there’s a bulky car seat in the way. All things that are non-issues in like 99.9% of 4-door cars on the road.
And that’s why the CR-V killed the Element. I drove both back in 2004-2005 and the second-gen CR-V was both more practical, equally spacious, better off road, and much more comfortable on the freeway. it also had more cargo space behind the second row.
The main thing the Element offered was cargo versatility.
2nd Gen CRV is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy uglier tho
I liked the Gen2 CR-Vs quite a bit. They looked great in Blue and they also had beautiful Green available. Nice alloy wheels on the EX trim and Volvo-esque taillights. Personally, the Element a bit much for me.
The swoopy rear window profile like a 911 doesn’t fit the rest of the car at all. The first gen CRV looks completely cohesive, the 2nd gen looks confused, softer, and a mish mash of design directions.
Personally, I don’t see a particularly swoopy aspect and certainly don’t get any 911 wannabe vibes from it. I thought the Gen2 was a big improvement over the original. We can agree to disagree. A guy I know had a Gen1 and remarked that he liked his better than its successor.
Ah, I was thinking of Gen 3, that weird rounded rear window treatment is awful.
This looks great tho:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSqA-cTG0WiYWNCrm6m47iDPGUWaHwjPV0fwpHrgT8lSlOiCOZqUyEE0wQm&s=10
The OG looks great in that color. I don’t think have seen one in that shade. And yes, the Gen 3 (and really any Gen afterwards) just seem to get worse and worse.
I thought the rear doors were one of the selling propositions. No B pillars is great. It seem that the size of the door was the issue. Not where the hinge is.
Moderate disagreement here. I have an BMW i3s, which also features the “suicide” doors, and I’ve always found it very practical for loading the child into its seat. It’s way easier on my back than a standard door. And FWIW I’m gangly enough to reach across and open the passenger side anyway, so that’s not an issue. ????
The obvious answer is no B-pillar coupled with sliding rear doors like the B-Max.
I had several customers with these. They loved em. Bummed when Honda discontinued them.
The Swiss Army Knife of Crossovers?
2029 a long time to wait. 3 years to rebody the CRV? C’mon Honda!!
Three years is an eternity in today’s world.
One of my favorite cars I ever owned. What other car could apply to this real story: While at the drive in movies, lounging in the back on the air mattress that fit perfectly, I accidentally spilled 40 ounces of Coke through the back while reaching for something. I filled up a few bottles of water, spilled them all over the coke and mopped up with a few paper towels. Crisis done.
YES. DO IT.
Please Honda, don’t cock it up. 3 years is a long while from now, but if you basically take the Element design ethos and throw the CR-V hybrid powertrain in it (fuel economy was the weak point in the original) I’m all-in. This is the first new car news that has excited me in some time.
Look at every other retired nameplate they’ve recently resurrected. They will cock it up.
Hey, I spend a lot of time here writing apoplectic diatribes on the new car market. I’m tired. I want to hope. I want to dream.
It obviously won’t come back with a stick and the hybrid MPG is a no-brainer, but I still want one with a stick.
I think it’s interesting how Honda had the actual utility of their vehicles nailed, and then killed them. Mid 2010s if you wanted to keep your bike upright in your car your options were: minivan, Element, Fit (I’m not joking!). Nothing else had the vertical space, closest I measured was the 500L.
Especially with Subaru being somewhat lost in the woods, I think there’s a real opportunity for a not-truck truly adventure minded option to come back. It probably shouldn’t have left.
Subaru is busy selling to the mass market of married women in vehicles that feel tough and offroadable on the way to yoga and crosstreks for nurses who can’t yet afford a jeep wrangler.
While I agree that this would have been cool as an EV, I have to think the aero of this thing would be horrendous. A hybrid makes more sense (and surely they can just use the CR-V hybrid system). Take some cues from the Passport styling-wise and they’ll have a winner
The only downside to the CRV hybrid system is it can’t tow worth a damn. When I was looking in this space the RAV4 hybrid was the clear winner since it can tow 3500 lbs with the planetary style “transmission,” but the Honda clutch based hybrid can’t be built up enough to handle towing.
My ideal Element replacement would be a utilitarian SUV version of the 4k towing hybrid AWD Maverick. In the meantime I bought a used Hybrid Highlander.
Honda is crazy if they dont make a pickup version of the Element.
I was reading the Slate article thinking “this looks similar to my old Element” and hey, wouldn’t you know?
Mine was a 2010 that got wrecked. I wanted to put 200K miles on it after buying it new, but only made it to 130K or so.
Haha, same thoughts here! We didn’t get it new but we’ve got our ‘11 up to 155k and hope to go a few more years yet!
The one family I know who had one loved it to death, and were upset that it was no longer available when it was time to replace.