Honda Confirms New Civic Hybrid for North America
It’s official: Honda has finally decided to offer a Civic Hybrid in Canada for the first time since 2015.
The automaker confirmed the news today while sharing some details on the next step in its electrification strategy in North America, which includes hybrid variants of the brand’s best-selling products.
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First, Honda will introduce an all-new CR-V Hybrid this year with an all-new Accord Hybrid to follow. Remember, the compact SUV and midsize sedan (the latter is already available with a hybrid option in Canada) will be completely redesigned for the 2023 model year.
The new Civic Hybrid will arrive a bit later than those two, although Honda is not saying when exactly. In fact, we don’t have any more information at this point. Expect the design to be nearly identical to that of the regular Civic and the powertrain to be somewhat different from the one in the European-spec Civic Hybrid that was recently introduced.
After dropping the Insight for 2022, Honda no longer has a direct rival for the Toyota Prius and Corolla Hybrid as well as the Hyundai IONIQ and Elantra Hybrid. And let’s not forget that the Clarity is gone, too.
According to the company, the new hybrid offerings will eventually represent more than 50 percent of the sales mix of each model.
“Increasing our hybrid-electric vehicle output is critical to reducing Honda’s greenhouse gas emissions and achieving our goals of 100% zero-emission vehicle sales in North America by 2040 and carbon neutrality for our global operations by 2050,” said Jean Marc Leclerc, President and CEO Honda Canada. “Our recent investment of $1.38 billion to upgrade our Honda of Canada Mfg. (HCM) facilities in preparation for our electrified future is another step to realizing these goals as HCM will be the North American lead plant for building the all-new 2023 CR-V Hybrid.”
As for fully electric vehicles, which are projected to account for 40 percent of Honda’s North American sales by 2030, Honda will introduce the Prologue SUV in 2024 through a partnership with General Motors, followed by a series of electrified vehicles starting in 2026 based on its own e:Architecture. Some of these EVs will be built at Honda plants in North America.