Five and seven seats for new Honda CR-V

Honda's fifth-generation CR-V will be available with both five and, for the first time, seven seats when it goes on sale in Australia in mid-2017.

That's the word from Honda Australia director Stephen Collins, who was wary of acknowledging the existence of the first seven-seat CR-V, as reported by motoring.com.au last June.

Collins said a full range of new CR-V models would be available, including front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive, and manual and automatic – but no diesel engine -- from launch next year.

"Engines are not confirmed, but it will be a very competitive offering," he said. "We're looking to replicate the current [CR-V] model range [which lacks a diesel engine] and will focus on petrol, which is where the market is.

Asked if that means there will be no diesel power for the new CR-V in Australia, Collins said: "No diesel, but we will launch all of our variants at once."

When questioned on whether that will include the unconfirmed seven-seat version, Collins said: "Yes, we'll launch with a big bang – all variants at once."

"We need to broaden the CR-V's appeal. Flexibility is what families want, as well as 2WD and AWD versions of both models. 2WD is where the growth is. The lion's share of volume will be five-seat petrol – that's the sweet spot."

Collins said the new CR-V will directly target mid-size SUV segment leaders like the Mazda CX-5, which will be renewed early next year and regularly attracts more than 1500 sales a month.

Asked if the new CR-V would be the top-selling model for Honda Australia, which will also launch the new Civic hatch in the third quarter of next year, Collins said:

"I think it will be up there. HR-V, CR-V and Civic are our core products and will make up 60-70 per cent of our volume. For us two of those products are in growth [SUV] segments."

Collins said he expected the new CR-V to find at least 1000 buyers a month, which would help it return to 48,000 total sales next year – up from a projected 40,000 this year.

"We'd want to be doing around 1000 [CR-V sales] a month. The current model is well below that."

Motoring.com.au understands the first seven-seat CR-V, which is yet to be revealed, will ride on the same wheelbase and wear the same body as the new CR-V.

While the new CR-V five-seater will again be priced from about $30,000, the seven-seat version will be positioned above it as a direct rival to three-row medium SUVs like the Nissan X-TRAIL and Land Rover Discovery Sport.

Like the all-new five-seat CR-V, which is based on the same new platform as the 10th-generation Civic, the seven-seater will be powered by Honda's new 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine.

In the USA, lower grades of the new SUV will also be available with an updated version of Honda’s existing 2.4-litre petrol four. We expect a similar line-up Down Under along with a choice of both front and all-wheel drive variants.

Both engines are exclusively paired with the Civic’s continuously variable transmission (CVT).