Honda to discontinue Accord hybrid sedan

DETROIT, June 5 (Reuters) Honda Motor Co Ltd said on Tuesday it is planning to discontinue the slow-selling Accord hybrid sedan sold in North America.

Honda spokesman David Iida said the automaker will continue to make the hybrid version of its Civic sedan but will stop selling the Accord hybrid when the redesigned Accord goes on sale later this year.

Japan's second-biggest automaker sold just 6,152 gasoline-electric Accord vehicles in 2006, against an annual sales target of 20,000 units.

That is in stark contrast to the success of rival Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid, which leads the segment. Toyota sold 106,971 Prius cars in United States in 2006.

Last month, Honda sold only 439 Accord hybrids while Toyota Sold 24,009 Prius hybrid cars in United States.

Honda plans to mount the hybrid system only on smaller cars such as the Civic and is developing a new hybrid car smaller than the Civic that will be introduced in 2009, Iida said.

REUTERS DKS RK2100