Honda Civic e:HEV L 2025 Review

The Honda Civic went all-hybrid at the end of 2024 when the range was culled to include just two petrol-electric hatchbacks: the ‘L’ version reviewed here and the up-spec LX. In L form, the Civic e:HEV is tagged with a drive-away price of $49,900 – six grand less than its better-equipped LX sibling.

Drive-away pricing has been a feature of the brand since Honda switched to its agency retail sales model in July 2021, and it applies to the Civic hatch, Accord sedan and the CR-V, ZR-V and HR-V SUVs.

The five-door, front-drive Honda Civic e:HEV L hatch presents with a part leather-look interior featuring heated but non-powered front seats, dual-zone climate control, five-spoke 18-inch alloy wheels, integrated sat-nav, a heated steering wheel, a 12-speaker audio system with sub-woofer, ambient cabin lighting and remote closing/opening windows.

Attending to a flat tyre when out on the road can be fraught because there’s no spare wheel at all: just an inflator kit.

For the $6000 price imposition, the LX version of the Civic brings a panoramic sunroof, swaps fake leather for the real thing, provides power adjustment for both front seats, adds a wireless phone-charging pad and includes one extra colour (pearlescent Sonic Grey) over the L model’s four-shade palette.

Both Honda Civics are covered by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty with five years of free roadside assist and short-ish 12-month/10,000-kilometre service intervals. The hybrid battery is covered for eight years/unlimited kilometres.

Pricing for the first five scheduled services is fixed at $199 apiece, including oil and oil filters and, if necessary, brake fluid and pollen filters.

The Civic e:HEV’s Honda SENSING safety technology includes a pretty conventional lineup of systems including low- and high-speed autonomous emergency braking, pedestrian/cyclist detection (helped by a wide-view front camera that also recognises road signs), lane departure warning with lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, rear (but not front) cross traffic alert, driver attention detection, self-dipping LED headlights and, somewhat disappointingly, a single rear camera.

The 11 airbag count includes two kneebags in the front, a passenger-to-passenger impact-avoiding front-centre bag, curtain airbags and side airbags for the front and outboard rear seats.

The Honda Civic e:HEV scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2022.

The Civic e:HEV L brings Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, the former wireless and the latter requiring cable connection. The L version misses out on the smartphone charging pad that’s standard in the LX.

Four USB-C plug-ins are provided – two in the front console and two at the back under the rear air vents – and there’s an easily understood control layout that comprises tactile rotating dials to deal with functions such as climate control and audio volume.

A 9-inch tablet-style Google-based infotainment system includes touchscreen-accessed sat-nav and menu-driven controls for numerous disparate operations such as selecting the drive mode or receiving messages.

Many functions, such as cruise control settings, audio and phone controls, are also accessed by buttons on the multi-function steering wheel. There’s no head-up display but the configurable digital display directly ahead of the driver is viewed easily enough.

Honda’s e:HEV hybrid system is applied to Civic hatch, Accord sedan, CR-V and HR-V models, the former three based on 2.0-litre petrol engines and the HR-V on a smaller 1.5-litre engine.

All systems employ the same principles: a combination of an Atkinson-cycle petrol engine and two electric motors enables use of pure EV power at low to medium speeds while the petrol engine kicks in to directly drive the front wheels at higher speeds.

This provides the best of both worlds: the electric motor’s ability to produce maximum torque almost from a standstill, and the petrol engine’s better high-speed efficiency. The system comprises ‘traction’ and ‘generator’ motors: the former purely for providing motive power and the latter, along with regenerative braking, for charging the lithium-ion battery pack.

The system demonstrates how far hybrids have advanced since the original two-seat Honda Insight quietly entered the Australian market almost unnoticed in 1999 and was followed two years later by Toyota’s eminently more efficient and practical Prius hybrid.

The Civic e:HEV’s internal combustion engine is a 104kW/186Nm direct-injection Atkinson-cycle 2.0-litre four-cylinder that works with the electric motor to produce a combined 135kW (the Accord’s system makes a combined 152kW). The Civic electric motor’s 315Nm of torque (335Nm in the Accord) makes for outputs that exceed all previous Civic models except the Type R. In the scheme of things, pretty solid figures for a small hatch.

The transmission is a fixed-gear electronically modulated eCVT system that seems to avoid the audible histrionics of many belt-driven CVTs.

Honda claims a fuel consumption of 4.2L/100km for the e:HEV Civic, which is around 2.0L/100km better than similarly priced non-hybrid competitors including BMW 1 Series (6.4L/100km), Mercedes-Benz A-Class (6.6L/100km) and Volkswagen Golf 110TSI R-Line (6.3L/100km).

Our review L-spec Civic averaged an impressive 5.1L/100km over a week of driving in a mix of freeway and urban conditions with three adult passengers on board.

As in other e:HEV Hondas driven recently by carsales, the two-motor hybrid system works a treat. The drive experience is not unlike Nissan’s e-Power hybrid system and is mostly akin to pure EV in its overall characteristics.

The electric motor’s quietly administered torque feels dominant most of the time and the subtlety of the segue into ICE mode at higher speeds depends on how aggressively the car is being driven, or which of the three drive modes – Eco, Sport, or Normal – is selected.

Dynamically, the e:HEV Civic continues with the nicely balanced road manners that have characterised the Civic for some time, at least since the hatchback version of the 10th-gen model launched here in 2017.

The 11th-gen Honda hatch finds a balanced mix between its handling capabilities and its sporty-side-of-soft ride quality. It steers with quick precision and, with the help of an active noise control system, the cabin rates as quiet when underway. There’s no denying though that some noise from the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres fitted to our review car did find its way inside.

One of the very few niggles that took some time to go away was the rather unintuitive gear-select mechanism. Set conveniently within reach in the centre console, the arrangement includes three buttons: one each for park, neutral and drive, plus a toggle-style switch for selecting reverse. They’re tactile enough but need to be visually referenced because the four controls are separated from each other rather than integrated into a single lever or toggle arrangement.

It’s not always the case with small-class hatchbacks, but the Honda Civic shows some respect for rear-seat passengers.

There’s enough space for 180cm-plus occupants to slide aboard without having their knees pressing into the front-seat backrest and the body width is adequate, competitive with the bulk of its rivals. Partly due to the L model’s not having the LX ’s sunroof, the Civic’s tendency to be relatively low-slung doesn’t impinge hugely on headroom.

Seat comfort, equipment levels and quality of finish are generally beyond reproach although at times it’s difficult to come to terms with the Civic’s elevation from everyday small hatchback to prestige market contender.

On paper the Civic’s 409-litre hatchback boot is totally competitive with its main rivals (the bulk of which are below 400L) but the real-world space, despite the fact there’s no spare wheel to gobble up room, is nothing special and doesn’t become really useful until the 60/40-split rear seatback is folded to reveal a decent 1187L.

Honda hybrids have come a long way since the prototypical, turn-of-the-century two-passenger Insight, which was never intended as a highly visible or even practical example of hybrid sales potential. It was only on sale locally, in limited numbers and not cheap, for three years as a come-on to early-adopters.

What a contrast to Honda’s current range in Australia, which is almost exclusively hybrid and represents a quantum shift, in terms of capabilities, from 25 years ago.

The Civic e:HEV might not be the world’s most powerful or advanced hybrid, but it is as quick and refined as mainstream petrol-electric motoring can get – and a temptation for those who admire EVs but are not yet ready to fully take the plunge.

2025 Honda Civic e:HEV L at a glance:
Price: $49,900 (drive away)
Available: Now
Powertrain: 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol-electric
Output: 104kW/186Nm (electric motor: 135kW/315Nm)
Combined output: 135kW/315Nm
Transmission: eCVT
Fuel: 4.2L/100km
CO2: 96g/km
Safety rating: Five stars (ANCAP 2022)

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