Honda Will Retrofit Older Accords with Wireless CarPlay

As GM does everything it can to nix Apple CarPlay from its future vehicles, Honda is going in the opposite direction, expanding CarPlay capabilities to even older models.

Although Honda has already offered support for CarPlay in many of its vehicles since 2016, for the most part, it’s been the plug-in kind — wired CarPlay. However, now it seems the automaker wants to give owners of at least some of its older vehicles the untethered experience.

As reported by Autoblog, Honda will be offering a wireless CarPlay retrofit for Accord models going back as far as 2018. The announcement was made during Honda’s media briefing for new 2025 models, where the company said that owners of eligible Honda vehicles will be able to visit a web portal by the end of January to schedule the service at a local dealer.

One of the biggest obstacles to offering wireless CarPlay in most vehicles is the lack of built-in Wi-Fi. Bluetooth doesn’t have the bandwidth to support the amount of data that needs to be changed between your iPhone and your car’s infotainment system, which means that those cars that don’t sport a Wi-Fi system can’t play.

However, according to Autoblog, this particular retrofit only requires a software update. If accurate, that means that it will only be available for those Accord models that already support Wi-Fi as part of the HondaLink feature.

That could explain why the retrofit only goes back to 2018 Accord models, despite wired CarPlay being available in the 2016 and 2017 year models. There’s also no word on whether Honda will offer the update for other Honda or Acura models, but presumably, any HondaLink-equipped vehicle with Wi-Fi Hotspot should be able to support wireless CarPlay.

Even though HondaLink has long supported over-the-air updates, it seems the CarPlay retrofit will require a visit to a local Honda dealer so it can be done by a service technician. There’s also no word on what the upgrade will cost, but it won’t likely be a freebie. Autoblog notes that a 2018 Mazda update to add wired CarPlay went for $199 when it was launched, and BMW once toyed with the idea of an $80/year CarPlay subscription, although it quickly abandoned those plans after serious pushback from BMW owners.

Wireless CarPlay makes a significant difference in the user experience since it lets you hit the road without even taking your iPhone out of your pocket, much less needing to worry about plugging it in. While you’ll still likely want to do that to keep your iPhone charged on longer trips, it’s a game-changer for those who tend to hop in and out of their car a lot, as CarPlay effectively becomes your vehicle’s infotainment system, coming up almost as soon as you start your engine.

However, the relatively limited availability of wireless CarPlay in vehicles has given rise to a market of third-party adapters that act as bridges, plugging into your car’s USB port and connecting to your iPhone wirelessly. However, these can be fiddly to get working and rarely function nearly as well as native wireless CarPlay integration, so this retrofit should be welcome news to many Honda Accord owners.