Honda CR-V design & styling

This model may be all-new, but if you’ve kept up with Honda’s recent launches, the mechanical package will sound very familiar. The regular hybrid uses the same e:HEV-badged powertrain as in the ZR-V and Civic, where the 2.0-litre Atkinson-cycle petrol engine mainly drives a generator to provide energy for an electric motor to drive the wheels, but with a lock-up clutch for direct drive at higher speeds.

There are a few key differences, though. A second, lower transmission ratio now lets the ICE help out at lower speeds as well, which is particularly useful when you’re towing; and there’s four-wheel drive on the regular hybrid, through a normal clutch-based mechanical four-wheel drive system.

The new CR-V sure looks sharper and more chiselled than the outgoing one. But there's no attempt to disguise that it's a bigger car than the last one; and there's more than a bit of X1 about those rear lights.

Richard Lane

Deputy road test editor

What’s more, there’s also a plug-in hybrid version of the CR-V, named e:PHEV. It has a 17.7kWh battery, giving it an official electric-only range of 50 miles, meaning company car drivers will pay only 8% benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax.

But choosing the e:PHEV has a number of other consequences, not all of them entirely obvious. Instead of losing boot space to the battery, it actually gains 72 litres, for a total of 635. That’s because the battery is under the cabin floor, rather than under the boot as it is in the e:HEV (due to differences in how they’re cooled). Having the battery there also precludes a propshaft, so the PHEV is exclusively front-wheel drive.