2 weeks Ago By Matthew Guy
Article content As one of this country’s perpetual best-selling cars , there’s a solid chance everyone reading this either knows someone who owns a Honda Civic or owns one themselves. Since the model first hove up on our shores about 50 years ago, it’s been adopted by everyone from new parents looking for an affordable family car to empty nesters seeking a reliable ride to young gearheads looking to tune the thing to within an inch of its life. In other words, this car has a very broad appeal.
That trait continues into 2025, with variants of this Civic littering showroom floors like rice at a wedding. Sedans, hatchbacks, raucous Type Rs all live under the same roof – joined now by a fuel sipping hybrid model. What powers the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid? Dishing the goods is a two-motor hybrid system, one of which functions as an electrical generator supplying power to the hybrid battery while the other provides primary motive power; drives the wheels directly.
They tag team a 2.0L four-cylinder engine to produce 200 horsepower and 232 lb-ft of torque , which permits Honda to boast the hybrid is the most powerful Civic not named Type R. Nerds take note: this hybrid system, despite sharing much with others in the Honda showroom, is arranged for an in-line instead of parallel motor configuration.
This was made possible thanks to smaller packaging requirements and lighter vehicle weight in the Civic compared to other Honda hybrids like the CR-V and Accord . Deploying neither a torque converter nor mechanical pulley or belt, this system relies on the two-motor interplay for driving and generating power. This form of drive force transfer gives up smooth and predictable acceleration, permitting efficient low-rpm highway cruising when the gasoline engine is in operation.
It works very well. The Civic Hybrid never once wanted for power, responding appropriately to pokes of the throttle pedal and finding its way into traffic gaps with ease. The transmission, a so-called eCVT, was all but invisible and simply served up the correct ratio for whatever situation in which it found itself.
Interestingly, Honda figures the hybrid powertrain will count for 60% of all Civic sales in Canada, an enormous piece of the pie for a newly launched trim and powertrain. But given this country’s newfound thirst for hybrids (and age-old thirst for Civics in general), there’s a solid chance it will meet this expectation. Is the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid built in Canada? Yes, the Honda Civic Hybrid is built by workers at the Honda plant in Alliston, Ontario .
This is of no small mention for wide swaths of Canadian shoppers, especially these days with geopolitics playing an outsized role in many purchasing decisions . The plant began assembly in 1988 and cranked out its six millionth Civic in November 2023. More than 4,200 Canadians are employed at the facility.
What is the fuel economy in the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid? Official numbers from NRCan suggest a hybrid-powered Civic is likely to squeak in just under the 5.0 L/100 km measure in combined city/highway driving conditions, or 4.7 and 5.
1 in city and highway environs, respectively. This author never quite managed those lofty numbers, likely thanks in no small part to face-numbing ambient temperatures and the presence of chunky but sure-footed winter tires. With its cruise control set to 5 km/h under the posted highway limit, we did manage to eke an indicated 5.
5 L/100 km from this car . As an experiment, over the same road and in equal weather conditions, setting the cruise to keep up with traffic netted a 7.1 L/100 km performance as indicated by the car’s onboard computer.
Air is thick, and physics always wins. After rolling up 455 kilometres in a week split in town and on the highway, 28 litres of fuel was needed for a refill, working out to roughly 6.1 L/100 km.
There is a 40-litre fuel tank in the Civic Hybrid, suggesting a theoretical real-world range between 650 and 750 clicks on a full tank of regular. Is the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid all-wheel drive? No, it is not. Unlike one of its major competitors, the Toyota Corolla , this brand does not choose to endow its car with all-wheel drive, even as an option.
However, front-wheel drive is familiar to the vast majority of shoppers in this segment and will be comfortable for just about everyone who gets behind the wheel. As an aside, it is this writer’s opinion that a good set of winter tires is just as (if not more) sure footed in the snow than an all-wheel drive machine running a basic set of all-season rubber. Can a family fit in the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid? Depends on your family.
There is 1,074 millimetres of measured legroom in the front row and 950 mm for rear seat occupants in this Honda Civic. While it is not a direct competitor, the familiar Honda CR-V has 1,049 and 1,042 mm of legroom front and rear, respectively. This proves the point that while a CR-V may seem equally spacious from the driver’s perch, the peanut gallery may feel differently.
Be sure to bring all hands on your test drive before signing on the line which is dotted. Be forewarned the sunroof found in Sport Touring trim rudely eats 42 mm of headroom up front; this doesn’t sound like a lot but makes a difference if one is of NBA stature like this author. There are 419 litres (14.
8 cubic feet) of well-shaped storage space in the trunk, less than half what’s in the cargo area of a CR-V, expandable by way of a 60/40 split folding rear seat. Interior features of the Honda Civic Hybrid Honda did a good job when it redesigned the interior of the Civic for this nameplate’s eleventh generation. With the hybrid variant using precisely that same cabin, we’ll spare our readers (and editors) a total reprise of our praise .
Still, it is worth noting the pleasant tactile texture of these ventilation registers which feel much more expensive than items usually found at this price point. Someone at Honda also had the good sense to program a ‘click’ instead of a ‘beep’ into the infotainment system as an optional feature when changing radio stations and such. Oddly, the Honda brand has chosen to lightly decontent this model for the 2025 model year, deleting satellite radio capability out of its infotainment system and removing USB ports for rear seat passengers.
This may be a single model year blip due to supply chain challenges but is worth noting since those two features, especially satellite radio, are very important to some shoppers. A built-in remote Homelink garage door opener and LED fog lamps have also vanished. What is the competition for this hybrid-powered sedan? The most natural rival to the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid is its long-time foe, the Toyota Corolla Hybrid .
Generations of Canadians have made stops at dealerships for both those brands whilst shopping for a well-built small car – and it doesn’t seem like that trend is going to stop any time soon. While the powertrains may differ, it is also worth checking out offerings such as the Hyundai Elantra , Mazda3 , and Kia K4 . 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Canadian Pricing Electrification is offered on both the Sport and Touring trims of the 2025 Civic, leaving shoppers of the base model LX out in the cold.
The former has a starting MSRP of $33,600 while the latter pushes its price to $37,100 . Both those figures do not include freight and other fees which can vary by province. Smart customers will refuse to play ball with greedy dealers seeking to slap a so-called ‘market adjustment’ on these machines in places where demand is high.
As of this writing, our tester had a 41% residual on a five-year lease. Final thoughts It’s tough to go wrong with a Honda Civic, full stop. Toss in a fuel sipping hybrid powertrain, solidly built interior, plus pride felt by knowing this model is built right here on Canadian soil – and it’s easy to see why the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid is rapidly running out of room in its trophy cabinet.
✔ Fuel sipping champ ✔ Ample hybrid power ✔ Well-crafted cabin ✔ Built in Canada ✘ Some missing features in 2025 ✘ Price walk to the Touring trim ✘ Initial availability in some markets Sign up for our newsletter Blind-Spot Monitor and follow our social channels on X , Tiktok and LinkedIn to stay up to date on the latest automotive news, reviews, car culture, and vehicle shopping advice..
