• Just one powertrain option…
• … but it’s an excellent one
• Powerful, efficient and smooth

Hybrid engine

Honda has worked some magic here. The 2.0-litre petrol hybrid is truly the best of all worlds. When compared with Honda’s old engines, it’s more efficient than the 1.0-litre petrol, more powerful and faster than the 1.5-litre petrol and has more torque (pulling power) than the diesel, making it as close to a Goldilocks solution as possible.

That claim really does hold up on the road. With 184hp and 315Nm of torque, it’s good for a 0-62mph sprint of just 7.9 seconds. That’s quicker than any version of the Ford Focus or Volkswagen Golf (excluding their standalone ST and GT performance models) and it does feel genuinely quick.

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The Civic’s hybrid system is different to most others. Most of the time, it acts like a range-extending electric car – the electric motors drive the front wheels while the engine acts as a generator. It will, in fact, run on purely electricity without any engine assistance, but with a battery just over 1.0kWh in size it won’t do it for very long. It can, however, do it at any speed.

At higher speeds, where electric motors are less efficient, the engine locks in to directly drive the wheels. This means that, despite its description as an e-CVT, the Civic doesn’t actually have a gearbox at all, making progress very smooth indeed. It felt like driving an EV, because most of the time… we kind of were.

Choosing Sport from the drive mode selector helped us to get a shift on. In this mode, under hard acceleration the engine will actually dip the revs to simulate gear changes while pumping enhanced engine sound into the cabin. It sounds distinctly like one of Honda’s iconic VTEC (yo) engines, and is a bit of silly fun that we can get behind.

Since there’s no gearbox you might wonder why there are gearshift paddles on the steering wheel. Well, they’re to control the regenerative braking. It’s not a particularly strong effect, however, and it resets on acceleration, so don’t expect one-pedal driving round town like a true EV.

What’s it like to drive?

• Handles beautifully
• Ride is well-judged
• Type R if you really want pace

The Civic drives very well indeed. Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise considering Honda’s heritage with sports cars and hot hatchbacks, but even with that history in mind we weren’t expecting the Civic to be quite this good.

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The steering is well-weighted and feels natural, while the car grips tenaciously at the front end giving you the confidence to stick it into a twisty B-road. Body control is excellent too, with a minimum of pitch and roll and only larger mid-corner bumps unsettling it.

‘Although Honda doesn’t market this car as anything other than a family car, it’s fair to say that the Civic’s off-line acceleration and overall vim and vigour are enough to keep most drivers more than amused,’ Keith opines in his long term test report.

‘Thanks to a decent amount of hybrid assistance, it positively sprints away from the line – perfect for getting across busy roundabouts – with very little fuss. The 0-62mph time of 8.4 seconds really only tells part of a very positive performance.’

The Civic rides well, too. Road irregularities are straightened out with very few imperfections being relayed back to the driver’s seat or steering wheel. Combine that with a smooth and linear electric start and we could see why the Civic is comfiest in class. It can simply glide around, making the driver feel impervious to their surroundings. At motorway speeds it becomes a bit bumpier, but it’s still class leading in terms of comfort.

Put simply, we think the new Civic is the best car in its class to drive. And that’s a very tough thing to say, considering how good the Ford Focus is on the road.