Honda Civic e:HEV hybrid revealed

The 2022 Honda Civic e:HEV hybrid has been revealed in Europe and the electrified hatchback will aim directly at the Toyota Corolla Hybrid when it arrives in Australia late this year.

The first Honda Civic hybrid since the departure of the ninth-generation model in 2015 combines a larger petrol engine and, unlike Toyota’s plugless hybrid powertrains, dual electric motors as part of its e:HEV system.

As a result, and given the sole 11th-generation Civic – the high-spec VTi LX hatch – is priced from $47,200 drive-away in Australia, the e:HEV won’t come cheap and could top $50,000 drive-away in Australia.

Meantime, Toyota Australia offers a hybrid version of every variant in its Corolla hatch and sedan range priced from $27,395 plus on-road costs.

Honda Australia, which has previously confirmed it will release a hybrid version of its latest Civic here this year, is yet to announce pricing or specs but hasn’t ruled out a more affordable Civic hatch variant, while the new Civic Type R hot hatch is also due for its world debut – and potential local release – by the end of 2022.

“We've previously confirmed a hybrid variant of the 11th-generation Civic, powered by Honda's advanced two-motor e:HEV powertrain, will join the Civic line-up in Australia in 2022,” Honda Australia spokesperson Justin Lacy told carsales today.

“We'll be able to share more details about the Civic e:HEV for our market as we get closer to launch in second half of the year.”

As expected, instead of the regular model’s 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, the 2022 Honda Civic e:HEV’s hybrid system is based around the 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated Atkinson-cycle petrol engine seen in the bigger Accord VTi-LX Hybrid, and matched with a CVT automatic.

But although it offers the same 315Nm torque peak as the petrol-electric Accord, power output is reduced from 158kW to 135kW in the Civic. Nevertheless, that’s up from the standard Civic’s 131kW/240Nm outputs.

The bigger news is fuel consumption. Honda says it’s targeting less than 5.0L/100km according to the WLTP protocol, which is more stringent than Australia’s ADR Combined standard, against which the non-hybrid Civic consumes 6.3L/100km, the Accord Hybrid 4.3L/100km and the Corolla Hybrid 4.2L/100km. So the Civic e:HEV could be more efficient than all those models.

Due for release in Europe by November, the hybrid Civic remains front-wheel drive but employs an electric motor to power the front wheels either on its own or in tandem with the petrol, plus another that acts as a generator to charge the new 72-cell lithium-ion battery.

The system automatically shifts between EV, Hybrid and Engine powertrain functions and offers four drive modes (Eco, Normal, Sport and Individual), plus ‘PRND’ buttons to replace the conventional gear shifter.

There are few obvious design changes for the hybrid Civic, apart from hybrid-specific displays for the infotainment screen and instrument cluster, plus a revised rear bumper with concealed exhaust outlets, blue accents for its Honda badges and e:HEV tailgate badging.

Honda, which has promised to cease the sale of internal combustion-powered vehicles by 2040, says the Civic e:HEV completes its commitment to electrify all of its mainstream models in Europe by the end of 2022, by joining the Honda e, Jazz, Jazz Crosstar, CR-V and HR-V.

Honda Australia’s first e:HEV model, the third-generation HR-V compact SUV, will be launched within weeks, followed by the fifth-generation CR-V with both hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains in 2023, but its first EV remains a couple of years away.

Honda has sold more than 27.5 million examples of the Civic across 170 countries since 1972.

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