2025 Honda Civic Hybrid review: Greening up a classic
It’s not your imagination: cars are getting more expensive. While it was possible just five years ago to buy a car for less than $10,000 before fees, today the cheapest car on the Canadian market costs more than $20,000. I wrote about this loss in vehicle affordability for Driving.ca, including some buying advice. One way to lower your purchase cost is to consider whether a smaller and less expensive vehicle might meet your needs, which brings us to this 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid review.
Compact SUVs are popular these days, and so are hybrid vehicles. But if you live in a city or suburb and rarely drive outside urban environs, a compact hybrid sedan or hatchback will cost you less up front and will be more efficient than an SUV. If you’re working with a budget of less than $40,000 and you’re currently considering very small SUVs, hybrid cars are worth considering as well.
Here’s a look at the Honda Civic Hybrid, the 2025 Canadian Car of the Year and 2025 North American Car of the Year.
The 2025 Honda Civic Sport Touring Hybrid sedan was provided on loan by Honda Canada for our Annapolis Valley winter road trip, and we also tested another unit in the Toronto area. Have questions about the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid or looking for car buying advice? Ask the automotive experts in our Facebook community!
2025 Honda Civic Hybrid review: Pros and cons
2025 Honda Civic Hybrid pros:
- Excellent fuel economy
- Added power vastly improves the driving experience
- Plenty of thoughtful details
2025 Honda Civic Hybrid cons:
- More expensive starting price than its competition
- Low seating position can make getting in and out more difficult
- Cars are less popular than SUVs
What is the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid?
The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid marks the return of a hybrid Civic to Honda Canada’s product line-up after a 10-year hiatus. The Honda Civic Hybrid is a conventional or self-charging hybrid. This means its hybrid system operates without needing to be plugged in, but the car cannot drive on electric power alone for long periods. The Honda Civic Hybrid is available with the sedan and hatchback body styles.
2025 Honda Civic Hybrid size and exterior design
The Civic is a compact car. It’s sized appropriately for a family of three or four, though the latter family would need to pack efficiently when taking longer road trips. If you’ve seen or driven a gas-powered Civic, then you’ve seen a Civic Hybrid. Apart from some exterior badging, the styling on the hybrid is identical to the gas-only version.
There are two features in the Honda Civic that help it stand out from the competition. You can drop the rear seatbacks from the trunk thanks to a pair of levers, and the washer fluid discharges directly onto the wiper blades rather than spraying onto the windshield, which helps it spread more effectively. These details are uncommon among the Civic’s competition.
Interior design
The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Sport features nearly identical interior styling to the current-generation gas-only Honda Civic Sport. This includes a leatherette and fabric combination on the seats and the well-liked honeycomb mesh overlays on the dashboard that cover the vents.
To get leather seats, you’ll need to choose the top-trim Honda Civic Sport Touring Hybrid. Regardless of trim level, a black interior is the only option in the Honda Civic sedan. The Civic Hatchback offers a grey interior on its Sport Hybrid trim, but only with the grey exterior paint.
Seat comfort
The 2025 Honda Civic has 13.4 centimetres of ground clearance. This means, like most sedans and hatchbacks, its interior floor is lower to the ground than the average SUV. The trade-off of better efficiency and handling can be worth it for some buyers, but you’ll want to check your comfort level for getting into and out of the car while taking it for a test drive.
Once you’re seated, the Civic’s driver’s seat is suitably comfortable for the price point. Overall headroom and legroom are slightly better in most measurements than its competition.
How much cargo space is there in the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid?
The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid sedan has 419 litres of cargo space in its trunk. In the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid hatchback, you’ll find 693 litres of cargo capacity behind the rear seats. Both figures are the best among the Civic’s primary competition.
Infotainment and technology features
Most versions of the 2025 Honda Civic come with a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system running Google Built-in technology. A larger 9-inch screen is equipped in the top Touring trims along with a wireless phone charging pad, as shown in this test unit. Apart from a handful of instances where the system didn’t connect with my phone on startup, the Civic’s infotainment was stable and user-friendly in our testing.
Which safety systems are standard on the 2025 Honda Civic?
The 2025 Honda Civic comes with an excellent suite of standard safety systems. These include forward collision mitigation, blind spot monitoring, cross-traffic monitoring, lane keep assist, lane departure assist, road departure mitigation, adaptive cruise control, automatic high beams, traffic sign recognition, traffic jam assist, and a driver attention monitor.
How much power is there in the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid in Canada?
The new Civic Hybrid uses a 2.0-litre four-cylinder gas engine, which is almost identical to the one found in the Civic’s gas models. A pair of electric motors is added to the hybrid to bring total system output up to 200 horsepower and 232 pound-feet of torque. This is an added 50 hp and 99 lb-ft of torque relative to the gas-only version and improves the Civic’s drivability considerably.
How does the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid drive?
The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid is an all-around excellent compact sedan. Its low-speed electric torque makes it feel significantly peppier relative to the gas-only Civic. The Civic Hybrid also more powerful than the Toyota Corolla Hybrid and the Hyundai Elantra Hybrid, its two primary competitors. Handling is very good, and the ride is appropriately smooth for its price point.
What is the fuel economy of the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid?
In the new Honda Civic Hybrid, fuel economy averages 4.7 litres per 100 kilometres in city driving, 5.1 on the highway, and 4.9 combined. This makes it one of the most efficient new vehicles you can buy without a plug. It’s significantly more efficient than the gas-only Civic’s ratings of 7.6/6.0/6.9 L/100 km. I averaged slightly higher than expected at 6.0 L/100 km combined, but this is fair given that my test took place on winter tires during two weeks of frigid temperatures.
How much will a 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid cost in Canada?
In Canada, the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid sedan has a starting price of $35,562 for the Sport Hybrid trim and tops off at $39,062 for the Sport Touring Hybrid. In hatchback format, the Sport Hybrid trim starts at $37,462, while the Sport Touring Hybrid starts at $40,962.
When comparing otherwise identical trims — specifically the $33,666 2025 Honda Civic Sport gas versus the $35,562 2025 Honda Civic Sport Hybrid — the fuel savings from the hybrid would make up the $1,896 price difference in three years. If you’ll own your car for longer than that, the hybrid is clearly the best option.
Is the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid worth buying?
Between the Honda Civic Hybrid, Toyota Corolla Hybrid, and Hyundai Elantra Hybrid, the Civic is by far the most powerful of the three. The base Corolla Hybrid is slightly more efficient and has a lower starting price than the other two, so some buyers might choose it on that basis. But if power and drivability are motivating factors for you, the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid is worth the extra cost relative to its competition and will save you money versus a hybrid SUV. Plus, the Civic Hybrid sedan is built right here in Canada at Honda’s manufacturing facility in Alliston, Ontario. Among hybrid compact cars, it’s an excellent choice.
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