The 2012 all-new, ninth-generation Honda Civic has been officially unveiled, ahead of a launch across the U.S. in the second quarter of 2011. That the all-new Civic has turned out to be so mildly different—outside and inside—from the current Civic is hardly surprising, as the Honda Civic concept and these spyshot had provided a pretty good preview of the hugely popular Honda mid-size car.
The upcoming Civic lineup consists of the following: the standard Sedan and Coupe variants; the new HF fuel-efficient sedan variant; the Si performance sedan and coupe variants; and hybrid and natural gas sedan variants. Honda says that a key feature of the all-new Civic is its improved fuel economy across the range.
Equipped with Honda’s IMA system, a lithium-ion battery pack, a 1.5-litre i-VTEC engine and a CVT, the Civic Hybrid gets 110 hp and 19.1 km/litre (45 mpg) fuel economy, an improvement of 1.7 km/litre (4 mpg) over the current Civic Hybrid. Also standard on the Civic Hybrid is the Honda Eco Assist system, a feature that is similarly present on the Sedan, Coupe, HF and natural gas Civic variants.
A 140 hp 1.8-litre i-VTEC engine, paired to a five-speed automatic transmission, powers the Sedan, Coupe, HF and natural gas Civic variants. Honda lists the Sedan and Coupe’s fuel economy as 16.6 km/litre (39 mpg), and the HF’s as 17.4 km/litre (41 mpg). The natural gas variant returns a seven percent improvement in fuel efficiency.
The performance-oriented Si sedan and coupe variants use a 2.4-litre i-VTEC engine that generates 200 hp and 230 Nm, along with a six-speed manual transmission. Despite the larger engine capacity with a 22 percent accompanying increase in torque, the Si’s fuel economy is expected to improve by 0.9 km/litre (2 mpg) to 13.2 km/litre (31 mpg).
