In This Story
Financial system vehicles are usually not precisely identified for being enthralling driving machines. For essentially the most half, they’re meant to carry you from level A to level B as effectively and with as little fuss as attainable. However, generally an financial system automobile is usually a entire lot greater than that. Enter the 2025 Honda Civic Hatchback Hybrid.
Honda determined to position its sensible little dual-motor hybrid system from the Accord and CR-V into the Civic Hatchback and Sedan for the 2025 mannequin year, and the result’s a car that simply may be the most effective NPC-mobile your hard-earned cash can purchase. Truly, the Civic Hybrid is so great it has damaged freed from the NPC allegations. What Honda has here’s a handsome, sensible, economical, well-equipped hybrid that may win over nearly anybody — together with fanatics who look to the Si because the budget-focused enjoyable choice.
Full Disclosure: Honda flew me right down to Nashville, put me up in a swanky lodge and handled me to the whole lot the Music Metropolis needed to provide, all so I might drive the Civic Hatchback Hybrid.
I’ve pushed a hell of numerous hybrids in any respect totally different worth factors from all kinds of producers, and I’ve gotta say, the Civic’s is nearly the most effective within the biz on the subject of slick operation and actually stable effectivity. What we’ve acquired right here is Honda’s “Two-Motor” hybrid system that makes it essentially the most highly effective non–Kind R Civic ever made. The naturally 2.0-liter Atkinson-cycle inline-4 is attached to a two-motor sequence hybrid system. There’s no actual transmission, regardless that Honda says it has an “eCVT.” This little energy unit produces a complete of 200 horsepower (the identical because the Civic Si) and a extremely robust 232 pound-feet of torque that’s obtainable from 0 RPM. By itself, the gasoline motor makes 141 horsepower, and the AC Synchronous Everlasting-Magnet Electrical Motor makes 181 horsepower.
The entire bundle makes for a extremely peppy driving expertise whereas nonetheless returning incredible gas financial system. Honda says the Civic Hatchback Hybrid will get 50 mpg metropolis, 45 mpg freeway and 48 mpg mixed. Granted, I couldn’t obtain these numbers on my 45-mile check loop, however I used to be driving like a goofy goober by means of the backroads outdoors of Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve little doubt that for those who drive this factor extra gently in Financial system mode you’ll hit these marketed numbers after which some.
The issue is that the Civic Hatchback Hybrid is so goddamn enjoyable to drive that you just gained’t need to drive it like a boring commuter automobile. Like all Civics, it’s a superb handler. Positive, it weighs a bit greater than the Civic Si — Honda says it’s someplace within the 3,400 pound-range — however the returned suspension, a 0.4-inch-lower middle of gravity and wholesome energy figures means you’ll be able to have enjoyable when the street will get twisty. The Hybrid’s steering really feel can also be glorious, as you will have anticipated from the engineers at Honda.
There’s no actual approach to management the “transmission,” but it surely does make pretend shifts pretty much as good as any CVT I’ve pushed. Actually, it feels so much like a extremely well-tuned computerized with actual gears. Driving the Civic laborious isn’t precisely horrible for gas financial system, both. There’s selectable regenerative braking with 4 modes managed by paddle shifters, and if you put the automobile in Sport mode, the regen degree you chose will keep the place you left it (it defaults to 0 regen in Regular and Econ mode). I used to be capable of nearly utterly recharge the automobile’s battery utilizing regenerative braking whereas in Sport mode, which was fairly neat to see. The Sport Touring trims additionally get an Particular person drive mode that permits you to customise your drive setting.
Like all Eleventh-gen Civics, the Hybrid Hatchback is a great-looking automobile. Not an excessive amount of has modified on the skin, however for 2025 the Civic will get a extra aggressive grille and entrance fascia, borrowing from the Civic Si. The Hybrid additionally loses the tailpipes out again for a extra eco-conscious look. Different minor tweaks embody new 18-inch wheels, black window trim, black facet mirrors, and physique colour trim for the grille encompass, entrance spoiler and again bumper insert. The automobile is unassuming, for positive, but it surely’s nonetheless extraordinarily good-looking. For those who ask me, it’s the best-looking of all of the compact vehicles you should buy proper now.
Inside it’s an analogous story to the skin. Not an excessive amount of has modified, however the updates actually do make a distinction within the total bundle. I drove a completely loaded Sport Touring Hybrid with a $34,500 as-tested worth; the bottom Sport Hybrid begins at $31,045, together with vacation spot. In your cash, the Sport Touring Hybrid has mainly each in-car characteristic you can hope for, together with a brand new 10.2-inch absolutely digital gauge cluster and a 9-inch infotainment display (each of that are tremendous simple to make use of and have a slick operation), incredible adaptive cruise management and lane-keeping help (amongst a slew of different Honda Sensing security options), dual-zone local weather management, heated entrance seats, two USB-C ports up entrance, Google Constructed-In with a 3-year knowledge plan (solely obtainable on Sport Touring), a 12-speaker Bose audio system, leather-based seats, a sunroof and, in fact, wi-fi Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
What extra might you really need from a automobile that prices greater than $17,000 lower than the common new automobile? You’ll be hard-pressed to search out one other sub-$40,000 automobile with a nicer inside. It’s simply laid out so rattling effectively, the whole lot is precisely the place you anticipate it to be.
There are not any gimmicks contained in the Civic, and that’s a great factor. Construct high quality can also be actually good for such an affordable automobile. There are many nicer-than-the-price-would-suggest supplies, particularly on high-traffic touchpoints. The within of this automobile provides numerous higher-end automobiles an actual run for his or her cash.
Honda is launching the Civic Hybrid in each Hatchback and Sedan types, and for those who’re keen to pay the additional cash for the hatch, I actually counsel you do. Overlook the appears and all of that great things, the hatch merely has extra room on the within on your stuff and your issues. Honda says this little automobile has 99 cubic toes of passenger quantity and 24.5 cubic toes of rear cargo room. That’s on par with numerous smaller crossovers. Rear-seat passengers may even be handled to 37.1 inches of headroom and 37.4 inches of legroom, each the identical because the Civic sedan. At 6-foot-1, I might pretty comfortably sit behind my very own driving place. That’s not one thing I can do in lots of similar-sized vehicles.
Proper now, hybrids are extra standard than ever, so it is smart for Honda to carry this automobile to the market. There’s stiff competitors on the market from the likes of Kia, Hyundai and Toyota. Vehicles just like the Prius and Corolla Hybrid are each compelling packages, however they fall in need of the brand new benchmark the Civic Hatchback Hybrid has set. For comparable costs, there’s simply no beating the Civic’s incredible mixture of appears, efficiency and practicality.
Once I was first assigned this journey, I used to be largely excited to drive the 2025 Civic Si. Nonetheless, after spending a day with Honda’s little hybrid, I’ve acquired to say it gained me over in an enormous method. Regardless of its economy-focused underpinnings, this Civic is an actual performer, and I’ve acquired a sense it’s going to win over the hearts and minds not solely of oldsters who need stable efficiency however individuals who could have been a crossover. To be trustworthy, the Civic Hatchback Hybrid is so compelling, I can’t consider a cause you’d select an much more NPC-like compact crossover over it. It simply could have reset the benchmark for financial system vehicles all over the place.
