Honda Hybrid, Honestly: Electrified Civic Returning in 2024

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

Appealing to customers who’d like a dose of electrons with their new Civic – or, perhaps more likely, appeasing dealers whining about the existence of a Corolla Hybrid, the crew at Honda is rolling out an electrified variant of the popular Civic next year.


Readers with good memories will know this isn’t their first kick at the hybrid can, with a Civic Hybrid first appearing about two decades ago in its home market. Around these parts, the model vanished in 2015 and hasn’t been spoken of again in any official capacity until today. This time around, Honda plans to offer the powertrain in both sedan and hatchback forms. 


In a bid to prove that much of this car’s assembled parts are homegrown, the company has taken pains to mention the two-motor hybrid-electric power unit built by the Honda Transmission Plant and the 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine made at the Anna Engine Plant. Both those plants are in Ohio. If all this sounds familiar, that’s because both those facilities already support the production of the Honda CR-V hybrid.


Powertrain numbers weren’t announced for this market, but it is worth noting that EU-spec Civic Hybrids apparently make 181 horses and 232 lb-ft of torque. For what it’s worth, the CR-V Hybrid mentioned above – which also uses a naturally-aspirated 2.0L and two-motor system – is good for 204 ponies and 247 units of twist in the North American market.


"Our associates are proud to play an important role in the Honda electrification strategy by adding production of the new Civic hybrid to the CR-V hybrid we now build,” said Roxanna Metz, plant co-lead of the Indiana Auto Plant. Talking heads from the company are speculating the Civic Hybrid could comprise more than 40 percent of Civic sales; this seems like a lofty goal until one is informed that over 56 percent of American sales of the CR-V and Accord are hybrids, with more than one-quarter of Honda’s total sales in this country having some form of electrification.


Production of the new Civic hybrid sedan is planned to begin in spring 2024 at Honda’s plant in Alliston, Ontario. This will be followed by the hatchback, which will be manufactured at the Indiana Auto Plant. 


[Image: Honda]


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Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • Kcflyer Kcflyer on Oct 20, 2023

    I will still be paired to a direct injection engine which will have sticky intake valves by 60,000 miles. Pass

  • Spookiness Spookiness on Oct 20, 2023

    Hmm, I'm interested. The Corolla Hybrid is a deal if you can get it at MSRP, but it's only in sedan form. The Prius is ok, but it seems very low, and I'm not sure about the angle of the doors, windscreen, etc. A Civic Hybrid hatch could be the Goldilocks option.

  • W Conrad I'm not afraid of them, but they aren't needed for everyone or everywhere. Long haul and highway driving sure, but in the city, nope.
  • Jalop1991 In a manner similar to PHEV being the correct answer, I declare RPVs to be the correct answer here.We're doing it with certain aircraft; why not with cars on the ground, using hardware and tools like Telsa's "FSD" or GM's "SuperCruise" as the base?Take the local Uber driver out of the car, and put him in a professional centralized environment from where he drives me around. The system and the individual car can have awareness as well as gates, but he's responsible for the driving.Put the tech into my car, and let me buy it as needed. I need someone else to drive me home; hit the button and voila, I've hired a driver for the moment. I don't want to drive 11 hours to my vacation spot; hire the remote pilot for that. When I get there, I have my car and he's still at his normal location, piloting cars for other people.The system would allow for driver rest period, like what's required for truckers, so I might end up with multiple people driving me to the coast. I don't care. And they don't have to be physically with me, therefore they can be way cheaper.Charge taxi-type per-mile rates. For long drives, offer per-trip rates. Offer subscriptions, including miles/hours. Whatever.(And for grins, dress the remote pilots all as Johnnie.)Start this out with big rigs. Take the trucker away from the long haul driving, and let him be there for emergencies and the short haul parts of the trip.And in a manner similar to PHEVs being discredited, I fully expect to be razzed for this brilliant idea (not unlike how Alan Kay wasn't recognized until many many years later for his Dynabook vision).
  • B-BodyBuick84 Not afraid of AV's as I highly doubt they will ever be %100 viable for our roads. Stop-and-go downtown city or rush hour highway traffic? I can see that, but otherwise there's simply too many variables. Bad weather conditions, faded road lines or markings, reflective surfaces with glare, etc. There's also the issue of cultural norms. About a decade ago there was actually an online test called 'The Morality Machine' one could do online where you were in control of an AV and choose what action to take when a crash was inevitable. I think something like 2.5 million people across the world participated? For example, do you hit and most likely kill the elderly couple strolling across the crosswalk or crash the vehicle into a cement barrier and almost certainly cause the death of the vehicle occupants? What if it's a parent and child? In N. America 98% of people choose to hit the elderly couple and save themselves while in Asia, the exact opposite happened where 98% choose to hit the parent and child. Why? Cultural differences. Asia puts a lot of emphasis on respecting their elderly while N. America has a culture of 'save/ protect the children'. Are these AV's going to respect that culture? Is a VW Jetta or Buick Envision AV going to have different programming depending on whether it's sold in Canada or Taiwan? how's that going to effect legislation and legal battles when a crash inevitibly does happen? These are the true barriers to mass AV adoption, and in the 10 years since that test came out, there has been zero answers or progress on this matter. So no, I'm not afraid of AV's simply because with the exception of a few specific situations, most avenues are going to prove to be a dead-end for automakers.
  • Mike Bradley Autonomous cars were developed in Silicon Valley. For new products there, the standard business plan is to put a barely-functioning product on the market right away and wait for the early-adopter customers to find the flaws. That's exactly what's happened. Detroit's plan is pretty much the opposite, but Detroit isn't developing this product. That's why dealers, for instance, haven't been trained in the cars.
  • Dartman https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-fighter-jets-air-force-6a1100c96a73ca9b7f41cbd6a2753fdaAutonomous/Ai is here now. The question is implementation and acceptance.
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