2025 Honda Civic e-HEV
Price
Starting at $49,900 (excl. on road costs)
3 Things We Love
* Advanced new Hybrid System is frugal and punchy * Beautiful build quality * Fantastic compromise between ride quality and handling
3 Things We Hate
* Clumsy gear selector mechanism will take a while to feel natural * CVT gearbox is good, but it is still a CVT * Getting pricey now
Overall Rating
8.5
MotorMarvel Rating
8
Intro
Passenger cars in Australia are a shrinking segment, accounting for less than 15% of sales these days, with everyone turning to SUV’s, LCV’s, CUV’s and whatever other “-UV” is on trend at the time, it has left this once indomitable class, full of vehicle names that were once a byword in households growing up (think Corolla, Astra, Golf, Focus, 3, Lancer etc), barren, with many either sent to the graveyard, retired from the market, or totally reimagined to try and find some new relevance and strike a chord with the public.
Honda has had a drastic rethink with how it is tackling Australia, gutting most of its range, moving to an agency model over the traditional dealership model and introducing all its new models as hybrids only. The Civic e-HEV is one of its first new generation hybrid-only offerings and what we have here is a very different Civic from what we may have grown up with. Now much larger, more refined, more expensive, more upmarket and as mentioned, hybrid only. The goal here is to find a new niche for the Civic to sit, offering something its competitors don’t, a spark that resonates with buyers in today's world and to help reinvigorate one of Honda’s most legendary nameplates. Now how, you will ask, is a $50,000 entry level Civic going to do that? That “how”, is what we will get into, but what we will find is one of the most enjoyable, endearing and joyous “run of the mill” passenger cars I have driven in years.
Exterior
This current generation Civics’ styling is a display of Honda trying to listen to its consumers. The previous Civic (10th Gen) was so overstyled, it appealed to producers of a Transformers movie more than it did Honda’s own clientele, it was a bit childish, and while it had its fans, particularly for the FK8 Type R variant, there was always a “but” followed by a “I’m not 12 years old anymore” when it was the topic of conversation. This new model is altogether far more restrained. The catalogues of fake vents, sharp eccentric shapes littered all over the place have been replaced with smooth but muscular line work, drawn over a lengthened wheelbase, draped over a much stiffer chassis. This gives the 11th gen Civic a much more subtle silhouette. Less show off, more suave.
Throughout the week I had the car, still consistently surprised by the size of it, my opinion of the styling was changing. It is a handsome car, I truly do think it’s a great evolution from the previous model, but it is sort of.. awkward? From the front door forward it is so long and from the front door back, it’s comparitively much shorter and with the liftback design, it gives it a really weird proportion the more you look at it. It’s not ugly, it’s just unusual and maybe that’s what makes it interesting. There’s an old philosopher's saying “There is no beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion” and yes I know, an entry level Civic isn’t going to make anyone's hearts melt but there is something about this shape, it’s different in a good way. But let’s address the main thing, it’s enormous, it has been said several times that this could have been an Accord with how much the Civic has swollen over the years, as is the trend it seems, with every new car becoming increasingly larger and heavier. What was a small-class car in 2006 wouldn’t even fill the shoes of today’s offerings and while there are definite opinions on whether that’s a negative, realistically it depends on who you’re asking. For this facelift, we’ve also got new 18-inch wheels wrapped in some really rather serious 235/40 profile Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres, all round, which honestly is a surprisingly performance oriented choice for a standard fitment setup on a run of the mill hatchback, but even at 18-inch’s, they look a touch small for this body. We’ve got a sharper, slightly more aggressive front bumper with angled character lines either side that mirror design cues from the late NSX Type S, but the rest is standard 11th Gen Civic which, as mentioned, is not a bad thing at all.
Sean Maddison
MotorMarvel Journalist
Interior
Now I’ll admit something straight away. I was not meant to have this car. Arriving to pick up a different Honda, a confusing admin error left me stranded, but Honda Australia were quick to help me out and give me something else to get me back home. So there I was, waiting, and a new facelifted Civic e-HEV L was driven out in front of me and I distinctly remember being taken aback at how big the Civic has become standing next to it. To be honest, I was more relieved to have the situation temporarily sorted out than focusing on the car, but as I started my drive home, I grew intrigued at the prospect of a truly blind, unprepared experience. The 11th Generation Civic has always garnered praise for its interior, it isn’t even remotely ground breaking, but it is beautifully thought out and attractive in a sort of minimalist way. Things like the grille that spans the length of the dashboard, camouflaging the air vents behind to neaten up the design, the little swivel knobs used to adjust the vent direction and the three HVAC control knobs for temperature and vent activation are all tactile and high quality feeling with a satisfying heft to them. The use of gloss piano black fixtures, dark faux woods, shadow chrome plastics, black roof lining, it is dark but so many varied materials across the entire front cabin space, that are for the most part a pleasure to touch, just give an air of demure classiness that pushes the Civic beyond your everyday small car to something with a little more prestige. The Google based, centrally mounted screen that sticks up out of the dashboard is a bit old-hat looking if we’re being honest, and the physical controls lined down the right hand side of it look a generation old, but the 9-inch screen itself is responsive and clear, and yes, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are standard fitment but only the Apple software can be wirelessly connected, android users are relegated to cable connection, there are four USB-C outlets splayed across the cabin, two in the front and two for the rear occupants below the air-vents, so cable connection is not that much of an inconvenience, and frankly it is still the most stable method even in 2025. The fully digital screen in front of the driver is good, clear, concise and can be customized to display a majority of information you’ll want to see, it seemed a little small, nothing to really complain about but it is lined either side by separate digital coolant temp and fuel gauge meters, just first impression is, “if you really have to go to digital screens, couldn’t this just be one integrated unit?”. Aside from that, pretty much every control has a physical button or lever on the steering wheel, dash, or centre console below, which is glorious in this day and age, not a single “haptic” touch button in sight, lovely. The seats are comfortable and provide plenty of support in all categories of posture assistance you can imagine, and almost as if the engineers at Honda still remember the drivers of performance Civics’ of old, the seat height range is so vast that it’s borderline amusing how long it takes to go from neck-bendingly high to bottom kissing the road below. There’s PLENTY of room, as you may have guessed from my comments on the size of the Civic. At 181cm, I had no trouble getting in or out of any seat in the car, with generous amounts of legroom, even if sat directly behind the driver with the seat placed in NBA player setting. Round the back, Honda says the cargo space is 409 litres, which betters most of its competitors and does look enormous standing there with the hatch open, deep and far reaching, but being a liftback, actual usable space is diminished by that raked roof and boot line when the hatch is closed, ripping some of the height out of the area. It’s really not so much of an issue, but something to keep in mind if you suddenly feel the urge to buy some big yucca plants from the garden centre.
Specifications
Engine
LFC-H4 2.0L Atkinson Cycle, Electric Motor
Power
135kW
Torque
315Nm
Transmission
CVT
Drive Type
Front Wheel Drive
Fuel Economy (Claimed)
4.2L/100km
Fuel Economy (As Tested)
3.9L/100km
CO2 Emissions (Claimed)
96g/km
Fuel Tank
40L
Weight
1465kg
Vehicle Dimensions
Length
4569mm
Width
1802mm
Height
1415mm
Wheelbase
2735mm
On the Road
The headline change for this car is what Honda is banking its entire strategy on. A new generation, 2-motor electric drive system, one ‘traction’ motor to provide drive and one ‘generator’ motor used to recharge the 1kWh lithium ion battery, both paired with a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated 4 cylinder petrol engine, tuned for efficiency and battery regeneration performance but also having the ability to team up with the electric motor for full performance when called upon. This system will find its way in one form or another into every new product Honda will be launching. Headline powertrain figures here for the Civic are 135kW and 315Nm. But before we get into the good stuff, I have a small complaint, you have to fiddle around with the clumsy, confusing gear-select mechanism. It’s positioned conveniently, and there are buttons for drive, neutral and park but then curiously, a toggle lever for reverse in between the buttons.So it requires you to eye check it every single time you want to change between the gears. It’s a small niggle, but it is unintuitive and was one that irked me every time I got in the car.
But once you’ve fumbled your way into Drive, I can say straight away, it makes for genuinely surprising “warm-hatch” like performance. I was properly taken aback by its get up and go. It feels like the Civic e:HEV; this on the surface, hum-drum hybrid, was daring to tread into slightly more sporting territory than any of its class competitors. With satisfying urge under your right foot from that electric in-fill and the petrol engine cutting in smoothly whenever tasked with helping deliver maximum power, I cannot stress how impressive the entire system is. Unintrusive, refined, eager with so much more on tap than what we have become used to with hybrids in this class. It has that verve about it that encourages you to drive a little more sportingly, which is excellent news because you then discover how stunning a compromise the ride and handling is, that sweet spot where it feels so composed; soft and calm when you’re just trickling along, but flat and responsive when you show it a corner with a little more forward momentum, those Pilot Sport 4 tires making more and more sense the more you explore this new powertrain and chassis combination. Then once you settle down and enter a bit of traffic and start commuting through town, you aren’t any less impressed. It feels sturdy, comfortable and connected, all the controls doing precisely what you expect from your inputs, so you get that intuitive sense it is responding like a direct extension of your own body which makes the car so liveable and easy to get along with and then you look down and realize, rather unbelievably, you’re only using 3.9L/100km which wipes the floor with pretty much anything else. For the past decade, the Civic has always been a great drive in all guises, but Honda have engineered an impressive step forward out of this 11th Generation. It genuinely is a lovely thing to drive.
Safety Tech
We love Safety Tech here at Motor Marvel, and so I am pleased to inform everyone, the Civic e:HEV comes standard with a full suite of Honda’s SENSING safety technology. This is pretty much standard affair on all new cars these days as legal requirements continuously demand more and more standard fitment crash prevention tech, with autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, camera-assisted pedestrian detection, driver attention detection (a favourite) and auto dipping LED High beam headlamps all here in force, each with their own version of audible bong to alert you of a variety of circumstances occurring outside your new Civic. There is a relatively easy method to quieten some of the audible warnings to suit your preference which is good news as sometimes, this can be a tedious task in other vehicles. Mix that with 11 standard airbags covering front-centre, knees, curtain, side, passenger to passenger collision, the Civic e:HEV achieves a top tier five-star ANCAP safety rating.
Our Verdict
So it makes me ache to say that all this magic is locked away behind a $50,000 pay wall. This is a truly great car in its segment. Engaging, rewarding, refined, spacious, beautifully trimmed and yet Honda has decided to structure the trim levels as such that if you want a Civic, you’ll have two choices, either the entry L we have here at a lofty $49,900 or the LX at $55,900, which brings a panoramic sunroof, wireless phone charging, full leather trim, power-adjustable front seats and a premium Bose sound system. Honda has produced a gem of a car here, and none of the accessories or optional extras slapped in to up the price are worth mentioning when it is the meat and bones of the car that carry all the praise. The way it drives, the way it makes you feel, and yet for the most part, the cost of it will prohibit a large portion of buyers from even considering the Civic in their shopping list, missing out on experiencing what it has to offer. And that truly is a shoulder-sagging shame, because the Civic e-HEV is one of those rare diamonds floating in a sea of mediocrity that may not get the attention it truly deserves. And while I know new technology and a desire to push slightly more premium comes with a price, you can’t help but feel Honda may have shot itself in the foot. What they needed was a mainstream model to grab the attention of the prospective buyers in this shrinking segment and they are so, so close to being able to cleanly snatch the top step in this class in so many metrics, but the price is just a bit hard to swallow for many. Regardless, if you are in the market, it is well worth having a look at one of these, just to understand what it provides compared to anything else you may be looking at. It truly is a wonderful thing and one of those rare moments; a basic, mass produced, volume selling A to B designed car that has delivered smiles far beyond its target.
Overall Rating
8.5
MotorMarvel Rating
