The 2025 Honda Civic Is a Love Letter to Hybrid Cars

We’re in a golden era for hybrid cars. They’re the perfect step into our fully electric future because they work seamlessly with American infrastructure, making hybrids both efficient and convenient. 

The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid makes the hybrid formula its own, producing a sleek, smooth-driving sedan that gets 49 miles per gallon combined and laughs in the face of inflation. It’s the perfect car for our time.

The 2025 Civic is a refresh of the current-generation model, and it’s available in both sedan and hatchback forms. The four sedan trims are priced as such (including the $1,095 destination fee): LX ($25,345); Sport ($27,345); Sport Hybrid ($29,845); and Sport Hybrid Touring ($32,845).

The bottom two trims have a 150-horsepower gas motor, while the top two hybrids make 200 hp and 232 pound-feet of torque. The sedans go on sale in June 2024, and Honda says power figures are preliminary estimates. 

The top-trim Civics have a 2.0-liter, inline-four-cylinder engine paired with a two-motor hybrid, and the battery charges while the car drives—meaning the Civic doesn’t have as much electric power as a plug-in hybrid, but it also doesn’t have to be plugged in. Honda says the hybrid will make 49 mpg combined, and that it’s also “the most powerful non-Type R Civic ever.”

The convenience of hybrids is their key strength. People who drive or own electric cars usually get past range anxiety—the fear of running out of juice because there’s not a charger on every corner—quickly. But with hybrids, buyers can reap some of an EV’s economy rewards without a hint of range anxiety.

During 3 hours with the new Civic Hybrid, my driving never made a dent in the fuel gauge. It felt good. 

The car is also more affordable now than it was 20 years ago. The Civic Hybrid debuted in America in 2003 with a base price of $19,550, which would be about $34,000 today, and it only got 40 mpg combined. The new Sport Hybrid trim starts at $28,750 and gets 49 mpg. 

The Civic’s interior and exterior designs are classy but not over-the-top, and while manufacturers usually fill their interiors with shiny piano black trim (read: a grease and dust magnet), my tester had almost none. Instead, there was a shiny, dark-gray herringbone pattern throughout the car, and I ran my fingers all over it to see how it held up. No grease or dust. 

Driving the Civic Hybrid made me feel at ease. The steering and pedals had enough weight to them, and at low speeds, the car was quiet and orderly. The engine never grunted or struggled, and when I put the accelerator to the floor, the Civic Hybrid zipped up to speed. 

You can feel road bumps and dips in any car, but the Civic Hybrid’s suspension sucked them up and smoothed them out—including the cobblestone streets in Montreal. Visibility was good, the seats were comfortable, and Honda’s lane-keep assist made driving on highways relaxing.  

One of my favorite features in hybrids like the Civic is that, in place of a tachometer, there’s a “power vs charge” gauge in front of the driver. The gauge tells you when the car is charging the battery via regenerative braking, as well as how much fuel you’re using when you hit the accelerator pedal. It’s a live look into what you’re saving or spending, and it’s fun. 

I couldn’t find much wrong with the Civic Hybrid, and that’s a product of both the limited drive time and the car itself. I said “Wow” out loud within the first five minutes of the drive, and when I met up with the other reviewers afterward, they echoed my reaction.  

As the Civic Hybrid becomes more widely available over the next few months, people like me will have more time with the car to find any faults it may have. For now, I only have two dislikes: the front fascia and road noise at high speeds. 

First, the fascia: Cars need redesigns to evolve, but the underbite on the new Civic’s nose makes it visually heavy—like if Lightning McQueen never put his tongue back in his mouth after sticking it out to win that race. There was a way to redesign the front without making it look awkward, and I don’t think this was it. 

Look at the new Civic Hybrid next to the pre-facelifted version: 

But the Civic’s biggest weak point, to me, is road noise.

I drove about 62 mph on a stretch of smooth highway in the hybrid, and the road noise was intrusive. There was a hum from the wheel wells, and it felt like there wasn’t enough sound deadening around the tires. There wasn’t a lot of organic wind noise, but when a car went by, I could hear its whoosh loud and clear.  

The good news is, the pros far outweigh the cons—and you can drown out the road noise with music. 

Hybrids aren’t always the sexy choice; they got a bad reputation in the gas-guzzling 2000s for being boringly eco-conscious. But the Civic does its best to boost desirability with great design, a good engine, and engaging road manners. We’re living in an era of peak hybrid: affordable, efficient, and extremely convenient. 

The new Civic just adds to that legacy.