2026 Honda Elevate ZX Plus Top Variant Explained: Fully-loaded Variant Worth The Stretch?

The compact SUV segment in India is one of the most crowded segments, with everyone offering plenty of features and powertrain options. Amongst the pool of compact SUVs, Honda also decided to update its only compact SUV, the Elevate facelift, which has been launched at Rs 11.80 lakh (ex-showroom).

With a new fascia, added features and a revised colour palette, the Elevate facelift is offered with six different variants, which are SV, V, VX, ZX, ZX Plus, and ZX Plus Black. Today, we are diving deep into the ZX Plus variant and finding out if it's actually worth extending your budget for:

Exterior

Looking at the updated Elevate, it has gone throught subtle tweaks and changes, by keeping the overall design similar to the outgoing model.

From the front, the Elevate ZX Plus looks similar to the lower ZX trim, which has sleek LED headlights with connected LED DRLs, an updated grille design that houses front parking sensors, and the 360-degree camera placed in the centre. The front bumper comprises LED fog lamps with body-coloured elements and a faux silver skid plate, which adds a sense of ruggedness to the package..

Coming to the profile, the ZX Plus variant is identical to the ZX trim, which gets a boxy silhouette with a blacked-out B-pillar, body coloured door handles, ORVMs with turn indicators, black wheel arch cladding, along with blacked-out lower panels, and classy-looking 17-inch dual-tone alloy wheels

At the rear, just like the lower variants, this trim also has the new connected LED taillamps, which make it in line with current design trends, and a sculpted rear bumper with silver inserts. It even has a rear wiper with washer and defogger as well.

Overall, this top-end variant does make the Elevate a more rugged and tough designed SUV.

Colour Options

The Elevate ZX Plus is offered with 7 monotone shades, which include Radiant Red Metallic, Pristine White Pearl, Nordic Forest Pearl, Crystal Black Pearl, Obsidian Blue Pearl, and Meteoroid Gray Metallic.

Honda is also offering a dual-tone black roof option in this variant with Nordic Forest Pearl, Platinum White Pearl, and Radiant Red Metallic shades. Check out this story to know more about each colour’s variant-wise split and how it looks like.

Interior

The interior of the new Elevate remains similar to the outgoing car, with slight design tweaks such as the AC vents panel, dashboard trim, ambient lighting, and the seat upholstery. With the ZX Plus trim, the interior remains identical to the lower ZX variant, as both get a simple and elegant-looking cabin with soft-touch materials on the dashboard, door panels, and front centre armrest.

The Elevate with the update continues to have a practical cabin with good amount of storage spaces, and this ZX Plus trim has all the features the Elevate can offer.

Features

In terms of features, the ZX Plus trim adds the most talked-about features of the Elevate, which are rear ventilated seats, an 8-way powered driver seat, and a 4-way powered co-driver seat.

The ZX Plus trims also carry forward features like a 10.25-inch infotainment touchscreen with wireless Android Auto/ Apple CarPlay, a semi-digital driver’s display, single-pane sunroof, automatic climate control, wireless phone charger, a premium 8-speaker sound system, front ventilated seats, and a simple but most useful feature, which is walk-away auto lock, which adds to its conveniences..

Safety

The ZX Plus trim is offered with a 360-degree camera with a blind-view monitor and front parking sensors, which adds a certain degree of safety over and above the lower variants..

Other safety tech on offer includes an improved Level-2 ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) suite, 6 airbags, electronic stability control (ESC), a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS), hill hold assist (HHA), rear parking sensors, lane watch camera, electronic parking brake (EPB) (CVT only), and ISOFIX child seat mounts.

To know what features are offered in the lower variants, check out our variants explainer.

Powertrain Options

The Elevate facelift is powered by the same 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine as the outgoing car, which is offered with a manual and a CVT automatic transmission.

Here are its detailed powertrain specifications:

MT- Manual Transmission, CVT- Continuously Variable Transmission (automatic)

Price Rivals

The ZX Plus variant starts at Rs 16.80 lakh (ex-showroom) for the manual and goes up to Rs 18.30 lakh (ex-showroom) for the CVT transmission.

Its primary rivals include the Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Renault Duster, Skoda Kushaq, Volkswagen Taigun, Maruti Victoris, Grand Vitara, Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder, Nissan Tekton, Tata Sierra, Tata Curvv, Citroen Aircross X, and the MG Astor

CarDekho Says..

At a premium of Rs 1.41 lakh over the lower ZX variant, the Elevate ZX Plus is significantly more expensive, but it also packs in useful set of features such as a 360-degree camera that will be a boon in our crowded cities. For chauffeur-driven buyers, the ventilated rear seats are also tempting. However, if you are looking for a value-for-money package, we recommend the lower ZX trim as it doesn’t miss out on anything major, and will certainly save you a lot of cash up front..

What do you think of the Elevate’s ZX Plus variant? Let us know in the comments below!