What is it?
The Honda CR-V has reached something of a zenith with this first-ever hybrid version of the new fifth-generation model.
I’m not sure this super-sensible, practical, grown-up family SUV has ever felt more rational, more serious or less exciting than it has become by the edition of Honda’s latest petrol-electric powertrain. You might even say that ‘peak CR-V’ has finally been achieved. In the car’s own super-sedate, marvellously boring way, that’s quite something to behold.
You won’t find a modern passenger car with much less sporting pretense about it than this. Consider, for example, that it has a powertrain with two electric motors (the main ‘drive’ one producing some 181bhp) and a 2.0-litre petrol engine (which produces 143bhp at maximum power) and yet Honda apparently can’t tell you how much power or torque that powertrain makes as a combined whole. That says a lot about how much CR-V customers are expected to care about such things, doesn’t it? Not even a fraction of half of a jot, bless 'em.
The car’s new ‘multi-mode drive’ hybrid propulsion system is interesting because, unlike older Honda hybrid set-ups, it aligns the piston engine in series upstream of the electric motor, rather than in parallel when it might have driven into a shared transmission; because that transmission consists not of CVT-like planetary gearing but instead of a single-speed ratio onto which the combustion engine is coupled by an electronically governed clutch; and because, when the car’s running in hybrid mode, there’s no connection between the combustion engine and the wheels at all.
A third ‘engine drive’ operating mode (the others are EV and hybrid) allows the 2.0-litre lump to mechanically connect to the gearbox when the car is cruising at higher speeds and running under higher loads – but most of the time, it really is the car’s 181bhp electric motor and only that doing the driving.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Why must Honda make such ugly
Why must Honda make such ugly cars?Just as I won't buy an ugly sofa however comfortable it may be, so I won't choose an ugly car whatever its other attributes.
Boring but not ugly
You have seen the new rav4 ? If you want an example of truly awful take a look .
Great car, terrible article?
Sadly, this article used so much obfuscation that the clever way Honda have switched their view on hybrid tech is completely lost in the writer's attempt to appear clever.
Basically: good car, clever concept, will deliver exactly what's expected of it by its staple audience, badly positioned by the journalist. Might even make a good towing vehicle, if the electric motor torque is good.
Maximum towing 750kg which is
Maximum towing 750kg which is pathetic.
If you’re looking for a car
If you’re looking for a car that you want to keep, i.e the private buyer, you could do a lot worse than a Honda. They are so well engineered, priced well, will not (generally) break down, and as a hybrid make even more sense. Honda also future proof them by not making them too ‘digitally advanced’ so that they risk being outdated as the digital world continually develops. They may not be the most cutting edge, but that’s what makes them a safe bet for the private buyer in my opinion......