Honda Might Bring A Rugged TrailSport Trim To Its Smallest SUV

Reported Japanese-market plans pair the Honda ZR-V TrailSport with the e:HEV hybrid system, plus both front- and all-wheel-drive options.

Honda at the 2026 Tokyo Auto Salon

Photo by: Honda

Brian Potter

By: Brian Potter

Oct 21, at 6:09am ET

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Honda's ZR-V could be getting a lot more trail cred. A Japanese outlet called Creative Trend reports that the automaker plans to add RS and TrailSport trims to the ZR-V lineup for the 2027 model year.

Both versions reportedly run Honda's e:HEV hybrid system, with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive on the table. Honda hasn't confirmed any of it yet, and there's still no word on whether the TrailSport badge crosses the Pacific.

What The Report Says

2026 Honda ZR-V Trailsport HRC Concept

2026 Honda ZR-V Trailsport HRC Concept

Photo by: Honda

According to Creative Trend, Honda is adding two new trims to the Japanese-market ZR-V for 2027: an RS model aimed at sportier buyers and a TrailSport version built for rougher roads. Honda showed a TrailSport HRC Concept based on the ZR-V at the Tokyo Auto Salon in January as part of a broader Trail Line display.

The look tracks with what Honda has done elsewhere in its lineup. Expect rugged styling cues, increased ground clearance, and the kind of unique visual touches that separate a TrailSport from the standard trim: body cladding, skid-plate styling, and a more purposeful stance among them.

Honda's TrailSport treatment has become a serious seller. It has already shown up on the Passport, where suspension updates and off-road-focused specs back up the look.

That track record helps explain the move here. Honda reports that rugged TrailSport trims account for roughly three-quarters to 80 percent of sales on the all-new Passport in recent months. That's the kind of result that gets a trim extended to other models.

TrailSport Powertrain And AWD Details

2026 Honda ZR-V Trailsport HRC Concept

2026 Honda ZR-V Trailsport HRC Concept Interior

Photo by: Honda

The current Japanese-market ZR-V lineup includes both a turbocharged 1.5-liter gasoline engine and Honda's e:HEV system, a full hybrid setup pairing a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with two electric motors and a lithium-ion battery. Output on today's hybrid version is about 181 horsepower.

Reports point to that same hybrid architecture carrying over to both the RS and TrailSport trims for 2027. Front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive are both reportedly on the table, which would broaden how TrailSport-badged models are configured.

Honda's existing rugged trims rely on all-wheel-drive hardware to back up their styling, a detail that separates TrailSport from a trim level that is purely cosmetic.

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Whether any of this reaches American driveways is still an open question. Honda hasn't confirmed production of the ZR-V TrailSport at all, let alone a US launch, and the ZR-V itself is not currently sold stateside under that name.

For now, the closest US match is the Passport TrailSport, and Honda's recent SUV plans have favored hybrids as the company recalibrates earlier EV production targets. An unnamed source familiar with the discussions described a US HR-V TrailSport as "not that far-fetched," though that remains only an informed guess.