LA MOTOR SHOW: Honda Civic Coupe

Honda has revealed its production-ready Civic Coupe ahead of its world debut at this week's Los Angeles motor show.

The 'electric green' two-door – previously seen in concept form at the New York show in April (pictured) — is set to go on sale in the US “within 18 months”, but at this stage is a no-go for Australian showrooms.

The new Civic Coupe is expected to be available in the US with the choice of new 1.5-litre VTEC turbo and 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engines, each mated to either six-speed manual or CVT automatic transmissions.

Based around Honda's new global platform, the two-door version of the 10th-generation Coupe has been three years in development and was largely engineered in the US for the US, where it will be built alongside the sedan. The left-hand drive model shown was penned in California and created at Honda's Ohio technical centre.

There's no word yet as to whether a sportier 'Type-R' moniker or Honda's new range of turbocharged engines will be applied to the coupe body style in the future (that privilege is expected to remain the realm of the Civic Type-R hot hatch) and nor is there any sign of the promised Civic Type S.

Honda Australia managing director Stephen Collins confirmed to motoring.com.au that we won’t see the Civic Coupe Down Under, where we'll need to wait until mid-2016 for our first taste of an all-new Civic, which will come here from Thailand first in sedan form and should bring the same petrol engines, plus diesel and perhaps hybrid powertrains.

“We won't be launching a coupe version of the new Civic – this body style is specifically for the US market,” Collins stated.

“We are adopting a ‘one Civic’ strategy [locally] and it is our intention to launch the new Civic in mid-2016 in Australia. The body styles for Australia will firstly be a sedan (mid-2016), secondly a hatch and, following this, a Type-R.”

Honda Australia has previously confirmed its Mk10 Civic rollout, but is no closer to revealing when we'll get the new Civic hatch or whether we'll ever see the current Civic Type-R on sale in Europe, or if Australians will have to wait for the next-generation hot hatch currently under development.

When pressed, Collins said timing for Honda’s VW Golf GTI competitor was yet to be confirmed, simply saying: “Timing for the hatch and Type-R are still being worked through at this time.”

As we've reported, the problem is Honda's decision to 'short-cycle' the existing Mk9 Civic on sale here only since 2012 and European demand for the current Type-R, which may preclude Australian supplies until 2017, by which time a new Mk10 Civic-based Type-R three-door will be only a year away.

We wait with bated breath…

Until then, feel free to read our preview drive of the Civic Type-R from 2013.