We’ve been living with affordable hybrid vehicles for almost three decades now, but it’s taken a surprisingly long time for some of the best-selling cars in the U.S. to go hybrid-only, even for models that have offered reliable hybrids for years. Toyota started doing it with the current Camry and new RAV4, and now Honda has confirmed that the next-gen CR-V will only be sold with hybrid powertrains.
Honda says the seventh-generation CR-V will be revealed next year, in time for the SUV’s 30th anniversary, and it will ride on a new platform and use the company’s new two-motor hybrid system, which our own Andy Kalmowitz got to try out in a Civic prototype last year. This new powertrain is said to be more powerful and more efficient, and the modular architecture is more rigid while being lighter-weight. It should be cheaper for Honda to produce, too, and a new electric all-wheel-drive system will be a big improvement.
Somehow we didn’t get a hybrid CR-V in the U.S. until the 2020 model year, when the fifth-gen model was facelifted. Since then, annual CR-V hybrid sales have grown almost tenfold, and it currently makes up more than 50% of total CR-V sales. With the price difference between the hybrid and the regular CR-V being so relatively minor, and the gains in driving experience being so large, it makes sense to just hybridize the entire lineup. This year will be the third straight year in which Honda sells more than 400,000 CR-Vs, and upping the average efficiency of that many cars can make a big difference.
It’s already been spied
Many U.S.-spec CR-Vs are currently built in Ohio (the rest being made in Indiana), and Honda just announced plans for a new $3 billion plant in Ohio that will focus on hybrids, though gas-only and fully electric cars will be built there as well. Production there won’t start until 2029, but Honda envisions an annual capacity of 240,000 units. Honda says it will introduced 15 new hybrids by 2030, most of which will be oriented towards the American market.
One of those hybrids will be the model at the top of this slide, or at least something similar to it. That rakish fastback is officially called the Hybrid Sedan Prototype, and it’s probably just the next-gen Accord that’s due to come out in the very near future. It wears what will be Honda’s new design language, and you don’t have to imagine how it’ll look on the CR-V — lightly camouflaged prototypes have already been spied, as you can see from the Instagram post below.
I think it’s looking pretty good, though it’s a shame that the CR-V will seemingly lose its signature vertical taillights. We probably won’t have to wait long to see the CR-V; expect an actual auto show debut, simply because a car this popular can actually take the spotlight and be of interest to the regular people who still go to shows. A Detroit Auto Show debut in January seems like a safe bet, but Honda could wait for Chicago in February or New York in March.
