2025 Honda Civic e:HEV review 

Few cars combine performance, practicality and economy like the updated Honda Civic e:HEV, although it does come at a price.

With Chinese cars piling into the Australian market and trying to outdo one another on price and standard features, Honda’s stolid refusal to compromise its principles (or indeed entertain haggling of any sort) almost feels antique – one might even say arrogant. Yet it’s justifiable arrogance, something evident in its updated Civic e:HEV range. The hybrid hatchback is another marvel of engineering from a brand synonymous with quality, but it comes at a price. With so many bang-for-buck alternatives available, are Australian car buyers still willing to pay a premium and miss out on extra goodies?

How much does the Honda Civic e:HEV cost? 

The updated Honda Civic range now consists of just two e:HEV models – the L for $49,900 plus on-road costs and the LX, which sells for $55,900 plus on-road costs. The performance turbo petrol Civic Type-R stands alone at $74,100.

With the market shifting towards SUVs and the appetite for sedans and hatches waning, the Civic e:HEV has few directly comparable competitors. The closest with similar hybrid electric drivetrains are probably the Toyota Corolla HEV (starting at $32,320) and the Kia Niro HEV (starting at $45,000).

What is the Honda Civic e:HEV like inside? 

Few surprises await within the Civic e:HEV, especially for those familiar with Honda’s more recent interior styling. A honeycomb grille stretches the length of the dash and harbours air conditioning vents that are adjusted via toggle sticks. Aside from this one nod to flair, ‘conservative’ is the word that comes to mind, especially in the L (our test vehicle). The colour palette is almost exclusively black, save for a few chrome highlights, the bevelled fascia on the centre console, and the grey fabric on the seats.

The nine-inch centre touchscreen stands out for its proportions – where every other car maker is going bigger, Honda has opted for something about the size of a paperback book. Below it is a row of physical buttons and knobs for every air conditioning function (none is buried in the touchscreen).

The centre console is home to two USB-C ports, a 12-volt socket, a non-slip tray for odds and sods, and two cup holders. Honda’s gear selector also resides here – an oddity we discuss below.

On the steering wheel are more buttons and switches, operating volume, track skip, cruise control, navigation for the driver’s information screen, and the steering wheel heater. Both driver and passenger seats offer oodles of legroom, and the padding, while reasonably firm, is comfortable for a long haul.

Cross over the spring-loaded armrest lid to the second row and there are more seats clad in cloth and artificial leather. These seats aren’t adjustable, although leg, foot and head room are reasonable. Two air conditioning vents, two USB-C ports, an armrest with two cupholders, and four speakers are the extent of back-seat luxuries in the L.

More modern Civics have been blessed with a fairly practical boot, and the e:HEV offers just over a metre between its wheel arches and 910mm from seat back to boot lip, although the sloping rear window (which is so sharply angled it’s almost a liftback) does limit payload height. There’s another penalty revealed when you remove the cargo floor lid: a spare tyre has been deleted in favour of an inflator kit, to make way for the battery.

By some miracle Honda has kept the e:HEV’s kerb weight under 1500kg and this pays off in spades when it’s time to have some fun on a country road. 

— Kris Ashton  

1/5

What equipment does the Honda Civic e:HEV come with?

It’s not a long list given the $50k-plus drive-away sticker price. The L gets 18-inch alloy wheels, leather steering wheel, keyless entry and start, dual-zone climate control, nine-inch digital touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster, heated leather steering wheel, dusk-sensing headlights, automatic high beam, rain-sensing wipers, three-mode reversing camera and a 12-speaker sound system with sub-woofer.

Moving up to LX grade adds a panoramic sunroof, leather seats (the L has predominantly cloth), a wireless phone charging pad, electric seat adjustment and lumbar support for driver and front passenger, a sunglasses holder, a second seat-back pocket.

Honda’s warranties vary confusingly from model to model. The Honda Civic e:HEV is covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty and the first five 12-month/10,000km services are fixed at $199, for a total cost of $995.

How safe is the Honda Civic e:HEV?

The Honda Civic e:HEV is the only Civic model tested by ANCAP and was awarded a five-star rating back in 2022.

Among the technologies keeping occupants safe are eight airbags (including a front centre airbag), autonomous emergency braking (car-to-car, vulnerable road user, and junction assistance), lane keeping assistance, lane departure warning and emergency lane keeping, and an advanced speed assistance system.

Pleasingly, the e:HEV achieves this safety without the use of sanity-sapping chimes and overly intrusive ‘assistance’ features.

What powers the Honda Civic e:HEV?

Whereas the flagship Honda Civic Type-R has moved to a turbocharged 2.0-litre engine, the e:HEV retains a 2.0-litre direct injection system that works in tandem with two electric motors – one, a traction motor connected to the driveshaft that also recovers energy when the vehicle decelerates, and a second generator motor connected to the engine that generates electricity to charge the battery – for a combined system output of 135kW/315Nm.

A hybrid ‘E-CVT’ manages the moving parts and there are four drive modes: eco, normal, sport and individual (the latter allowing the driver to customise engine response, steering feel, and the look of the digital gauges). The powertrain operates somewhere between a traditional hybrid and an electric vehicle, with the FWD motor providing EV propulsion in most driving situations and the engine only taking over at certain times (more on that in our driving impression below).

Unlike some hybrids, the e:HEV can run on 91RON unleaded petrol.

What is the Honda Civic e:HEV like to drive?

It doesn’t take long to work out that the technology in the Civic e:HEV is driver-focused, in classic Honda fashion. It has eschewed the ‘bigger is better’ touchscreen philosophy rampant in modern car manufacturing in favour of a smaller screen that’s actually usable on the go. It has a volume knob and physical navigation buttons for the menus, plus the touchscreen itself is sensitive and accurate, with none of the numbness and unresponsiveness that plagues inferior systems. That, along with the physical buttons for the climate controls, makes for exceptional ease of use – proof that a central touchscreen needn’t be the size of a pool table if it’s well designed.

In fact, Honda’s engineering prowess and attention to detail are on show everywhere, from the exterior panel fit (what a handsome and sleek car this generation Civic is) to the high-quality sound system and the solid click of the indicator stalk. The only real hiccup in this styling and design masterclass is the weird gear selector arrangement, where you press a button for drive, slide back a switch for reverse, press another button for park, then pull back on a switch for the parking brake. Even after a week behind the wheel, it still seemed needlessly complicated and unintuitive.

We spent that week primarily driving around the suburbs in eco mode and saw a return of 5.7L/100km – about what’s expected from a modern hybrid electric vehicle, albeit quite a bit more than the official claim of 4.2L/100km. While eco mode often strangles a car to achieve its economy and is therefore anathema to a driving enthusiast, in the Civic e:HEV you wouldn’t even know it was on.

Acceleration is EV-like and effortless, with the E-CVT almost undetectable as it goes about its business. The 2.0-litre petrol engine only kicks in at highway speeds, under hard acceleration, or when the battery is running low and, while it’s not what you’d call sonorous, it is smooth and quiet – a claim engines in many other hybrids can’t make.

By some miracle Honda has kept the e:HEV’s kerb weight under 1500kg and this pays off in spades when it’s time to have some fun on a country road. Wide low-profile tyres, a competent chassis, stabilser bars, and ‘added lightness’ mean the e:HEV remains true and level in corners and doesn’t want for grip, yet the suspension tune is such that it negotiates bumps and potholes without fuss or injury to the driver’s spine. The two minor shortcomings we noticed both related to the wheels: some tyre roar on coarse-chip bitumen and a largish 11.4-metre turning circle.

Open Road’s take on the Honda Civic e:HEV

In a motoring world so obsessed with safety and emissions, it’s almost transcendent to get into a car dedicated to driving pleasure. The Honda Civic e:HEV is a reminder of how stodgy and overladen with technology modern vehicles have become, and while it might seem a little under-equipped for the asking price, the adage of ‘you get what you pay for’ applies here. Few cars can match the Civic e:HEV’s combination of economy, practicality and performance.