Honda Civic eHEV - long term review

This is officially a Very Good Car. Whether that makes it one you actively want – as we’ve discussed recently – is another matter, but the case for it is compelling. Let us begin.

First, and most obviously, it is much nicer to look at than the car that immediately preceded it. Cleaner lines, a face that doesn’t scream ‘I’ve had a few energy drinks and now I want to run up a mountainside naked’, and a fastback roofline. A neighbour’s teenage son recently opined that they too should get a ‘cool’ car like this one. They’ve got a brand-new Qashqai, FYI.

Indeed it’s against the likes of the Qashqai this Honda finds itself in a fight with; a fight for the very soul of the hatchback if you want comical melodramatics, because if Honda can make this normal, everyday car work, there’s hope others might follow suit. Or maybe it’s just the last salvo before everyone packs in the medium hatchback segment entirely and we’re all riding around in five-tonne electric battle-tanks.

Speaking of electricity, there’s a lot of very clever technology underpinning the new Civic and its petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain. It’s only available as this eHEV which sounds like some kind of fancy new-age vacuum cleaner, or the wingtastic Type R. Nothing in between or on the sides, so it’s either supremely sensible or – as per the Civic Type R Rulebook – quite mad.

In sensible guise, it is an absolute doddle to live with, if not to understand. There’s a tiny battery on board, slotted in underneath the rear seats, offering a diddy 1.05kWh of capacity. But that just means it can be recharged via the 2.0-litre petrol engine supremely quickly. A pair of electric motors – one to power the front wheels, one to act as a generator – join the fray, and the Civic’s Big Computer Brain works out whether full EV/hybrid/full petrol is the best way to move.

At no point are you aware of any one power source dominating, such is the silky handover betwixt electric and combustion engine. It recharges quickly, accelerates without fuss, cruises amazingly comfortably, drowns out road noise and imperfections, and handles itself with some measure of competence. It’s not going to tempt you into lift-off oversteer at any given moment – nor should you, you maniac – but nor does it require an injection of aforementioned energy drink to keep you entertained. Tidy, is what it is.

Just like the interior. It’s a clean, uncluttered layout that – praise be! – features real-life actual buttons. Three simple knobs affect the temperature and fan speed, there are buttons for circulation and air-con, very cool honeycomb finishing running across the centre, and a clear central screen that looks a little like an afterthought. Driving position is spot on, as is the comfort level of the seats. Feels well built from better materials too.

Is this all damning with faint praise? Like, ‘this fat-free cake features no fat or cake whatsoever’? Not in our books. Keen drivers will naturally gravitate towards the Type R – and should do, because it’s brilliant – but for the rest, here is simply a Very Good Car.