Honda Set to Roll S+ Shift Out Across its Hybrid Line-Up

Honda’s sixth-generation Prelude is just rolling into U.S. showrooms and one of its more intriguing features is the new S+ Shift which is designed to “simulate a performance transmission experience.” Expect to see the system start rolling out across the rest of the Honda line-up starting later this year.

The 2026 Honda Prelude is the nameplate’s first version to come with a hybrid engine. To maintain the coupe’s sporty nature, it introduces the S+ Shift system designed to simulate what a sporty manual transmission feels like, complete with downshift blips.

While the Japanese automaker has sparked plenty of interest in the new Prelude – which returns to the market after a 25-year absence, the lack of a manual gearbox, in particular, has generated a fair amount of controversy among reviewers and Prelude loyalists alike.

We’ll have to wait to see how potential buyers react to that feature – but Honda is confident it has a winner on its hands, the automaker planning to roll out the S+ Shift System across its hybrid-electric line-up, starting with the Honda Civic Hybrid later this year.

What is S+ Shift

Honda was one of the first automakers to introduce hybrid technology on the original Insight launched in 1999. A lot has changed since then. While hybrid drivetrains continue to deliver solid fuel economy numbers, manufacturers like Honda are beginning to tune them to deliver a mix of performance, as well as energy efficiency.

Prelude picks up Civic’s 2.0-liter Atkinson cycle direct injection gasoline engine with twin electric motors. Like most hybrids, the package delivers great mileage numbers: 46 mpg city, 41 highway and 44 combined. But what matters more for the sporty nature of the coupe is the combined output of 200 horsepower and a peak 232 pound-feet of torque. For traditional performance fans, the downside is that Prelude doesn’t have a conventional transmission. The system’s traction motor functions more like an EV, directly sending power to the front wheels.

The coupe does have a series of selectable driver modes, including Comfort, GT and Sport, each recalibrating vehicle functions like steering, suspension dampers and an enhanced exhaust note. S+ goes a step further, capable of creating the feel of eight virtual step gears. Depending upon the mode a driver selects, it also impacts those other functions. In Sport, for example, activating S+ gives you what Honda describes as “the exhilaration of a high-revving naturally aspirated engine, complete with completely with deliberately increased gear shock, vibrations, engine sounds and active downshifting during acceleration.”

Putting the emphasis on performance

And while there may be no stick, Prelude – which comes in just one trim – does have steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters to “shift gears virtually without taking hands off the steering wheel.” In the process, a driver gets a sense of what’s happening as the digital gauge cluster’s Power Meter turns into a tachometer with upshift/downshift guidance marks.

Honda’s new approach to hybrids is far from unique. Other manufacturers, including Toyota, Hyundai and Kia, are taking a similar approach with some of their new hybrids – as well as their EVs. “The systems now hitting the market are on the right path,” said Sam Fiorani, lead analyst with AutoForecast Solutions. “We’re going to see engineers looking for ways to make the experience more visceral” for hybrid buyers who also want performance. “I can’t imagine a fan of the Prelude wanting bland, smooth acceleration and no noise. Part of what they want is the sound of the engine and the feel of it going through the gears.”

One of the best examples is the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N which added features like the N Pedal that not only increases throttle response but introduces performance sounds through the EV’s eight internal and two external speakers. It’s e-Shift function works much like S+ Shift, simulating step gears and even introducing a more aggressive shift slap. Its N Launch Control is designed to maximize takeoff acceleration. And Ioniq r N also gets a “drift optimizer,” which is meant to simulate the way a driver can let the back end hang out with a rear-wheel-drive gas model.

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You’ll be seeing more of S+ Shift

Considering the relatively low volume Honda expects out of Prelude you might wonder why it would go to the effort of developing a system like S+ Shift just for that little coupe. It didn’t.

“We’re going to expand that system to other hybrid models,” starting later this year with the Civic Hybrid, said Lance Woelfer, vice president of automobile sales for American Honda. We could eventually see it become a virtually standard feature on the brand’s hybrid line-up, at least on HEVs that put a premium on performance.

Don’t be surprised, meanwhile, if S+ Shift, or a technology meant to create a similar visceral experience, starts to show up in the automaker’s pure battery-electric vehicles, like the Honda 0-Series line-up that will start rolling out later this year. The first long-range EVs developed in-house, they’re designed to deliver improved range, higher efficiency – and better performance.

The first of these will debut in the form of a reborn Acura RSX and it will initially launch in dual-motor all-wheel-drive form which could yield as much as 500 hp combined. While specifics have yet to be revealed, its widely expected that we’ll see the RSX offer similar functions meant to enhance the performance feel.