New Honda Civic priced

The new 2021 Honda Civic – the 11th generation of Honda’s renowned small car – will go on sale in Australia from December 6, priced from $47,200 drive-away.

That price includes on-road costs and metallic paint and reflects the Japanese car-maker’s broader strategy of moving the brand further upmarket and sacrificing sales volume for profitability with its move earlier this year to a fixed-price, ‘agency’ business model.

The sedan version available overseas will not be sold in Australia, leaving only the five-door hatchback.

The new Civic will be limited to just the one variant, a 1.5-litre turbocharged hatch with continuously variable transmission, until the arrival of hybrid and Type R in the latter half of 2022.

“What you’ll see with Civic, and what you’ll see with the new models coming through ... we’re looking at really highly speccing our models," said Honda Australia director Stephen Collins.

“A part of this new business for us is not playing in entry grades, not chasing volume. Volume and share is not our primary KPI, if you like.

“Of course we need to sell around 20,000 [sales a year] volume, but that’s not our primary driver.”

The new Honda Civic will be trimmed to ‘VTi-LX’ level, although that name will not appear as a badge on the car.

It indicates the new model will be well equipped – as indeed it will need to be, approaching the entry-level BMW 118i and Mercedes-Benz A 180 at that price point.

Standard features on the 2021 Honda Civic include 18-inch alloy wheels, heated power-adjustable fold-in mirrors, a climate control system with ionising air purification, a 9.0-inch infotainment touch-screen, Android Auto, wireless Apple CarPlay, inductive phone charging, a 12-speaker Bose audio system and over-the-air updates for audio and satellite navigation software.

Honda designers have gone to great lengths to ease ownership woes, with piano-black gloss trim used only for decorative purposes, not touch points.

Interesting style details include a honeycomb mesh insert across the dash and toggles for adjusting the vents in the dash.

Employing a camera with a wider-angle lens and an exceptionally fast processor, the revised ‘Honda Sensing’ safety suite for the new Civic offers autonomous emergency braking (AEB), forward collision warning and traffic jam assist, which will bring the car to a complete halt in congested traffic.

Additionally, Honda Sensing features adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, lane departure warning and road departure mitigation.

Other driver assist technology on board the Civic includes blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert and driver fatigue monitoring.

Eight airbags protect the occupants and the bonnet pops up to reduce trauma to a pedestrian struck by the car.

The sole powertrain option for now is Honda’s 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol four-cylinder engine, coupled to a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and driving the front wheels.

Producing peak output of 131kW and 240Nm, the new Civic generates 4kW and 20Nm more than the outgoing 1.5-litre model. The naturally-aspirated 1.8-litre engine has been dropped.

Honda claims that the CVT has been upgraded to reduce the ‘rubber band’ effect, and the transmission offers improved adaptive shifting for engine braking on hills and for corners.

Fuel economy in combined-cycle testing is rated at 6.3L/100km.

Riding on a wheelbase that’s 35mm longer (and a track that is 12mm wider at the rear) and featuring a reinforced body structure that incorporates ultra-high strength steel and an aluminium bonnet, the new Civic is at once roomier, safer and lighter.

Honda claims that the cabin space has been increased by 34 litres to 2803L in total, and the torsional rigidity has improved by 19 per cent. Yet the body weighs 15.6kg less than its predecessor.

Just four colours will be offered for the new Civic: Premium Crystal Red, Premium Crystal Blue, Platinum White and Crystal Black.

With the introduction of the new Civic, Honda will commence sourcing more of its product range from Japan, rather than Thailand.

That kicks off with the new Civic, which will be built at Honda’s Saitama factory in Japan. Japan can produce the models and variants Honda Australia needs in these uncertain times, said Collins.

“As an example, Civic hatch is not made in Thailand; this is only made in Japan. It’s made for basically the Japanese market, the European market, Australia ... maybe some other rats and mice. It’s primarily sourcing the product we need, with the right spec,” he said.

“And a big part of our strategy ... is more mid- to high-spec cars, and we see that Japan is the better option. I’m not saying that we’re shifting everything to Japan; it will depend on the model and a whole host of business case factors. But you’ll certainly see – in a number of models coming up – a shift to Japan.

“Sourcing from Japan will also open up some opportunities, because a lot of Japanese production is bound for the European market, which I think aligns for us pretty nicely.”

Collins also revealed that Honda expects to sell around 900 cars over the first nine months on sale, not including the 2022 Honda Civic Type R, which is due to arrive in Australia from the second half of next year.

“It’s a car we’re really proud of; it won’t be a huge volume vehicle for us. So we’re anticipating in the next 12 months we’ll do about 900 units [sales]. It’s a little unclear, given the supply issues in the second half of next year. “Given that it’s going to be more premium and [closer] positioned at the top of that hatch market, it will be lower volume for us, but still a critically important model.”