According to WardsAuto, Honda will unveil a short-wheelbase Pilot next year with two rows of seating.

The current Honda Pilot is offered exclusively with a third row and the inclusion of a slightly smaller version to the range will allow buyers to pick up a new Pilot for less if they don’t need a third row.

It is reported that production of the 2-row Pilot will commence in September 2018 at Honda’s Lincoln factory but at this stage, it isn’t known how much cheaper it will be than the 3-row model.

As it stands, the existing 2017 Pilot starts at $30,595 while Honda’s smaller 2-row CR-V starts at $24,045. It is therefore likely to assume that pricing for the baby Pilot will sit somewhere between these two.

Beyond the alternation in the wheelbase and the absence of a third-row, the new Pilot can be expected to retain all the same features as its bigger sibling. That means a 3.5-liter i-VTEC V6 petrol engine will come standard with 280 hp and 262 lb-ft (355 Nm) of torque. Six-speed automatic and nine-speed automatic gearboxes should also be offered alongside front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive configurations.

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