Honda Motor Co. launched an eight-seat minivan Thursday, following in the footsteps of industry rivals in the increasingly competitive market for large luxury minivans.
The automaker said the Elysion, available at dealer networks nationwide, features three seating rows and a low-floor platform that provides a lower center of gravity for enhanced stability, handling and comfort.
The top-end Elysion model runs 9.1 km per liter, the best fuel-economy performance among luxury minivans in its class, including Toyota Motor Corp.'s Alphard and Nissan Motor Co.'s Elgrand.
"We achieved a performance that had never been seen for large minivans" in developing the Elysion, Honda Motor President Takeo Fukui said.
The Elysion is an upgraded version of Honda's Odyssey minivan, which has both six- and seven-seat configurations.
The minimum price for the Elysion is 2.73 million yen for the 2.4-liter model with a four-cylinder engine, and about 3.5 million yen for the 3-liter, six-cylinder model.