Honda Makes Next CR-V Hybrid-Only, Arriving as 2028 Model
Honda will sell the seventh-generation CR-V only as a hybrid, starting with the 2028 model year, with a new platform and two-motor system.
Honda announced Thursday that the next CR-V will be sold only as a hybrid. The seventh-generation compact SUV is due in North America next year as a 2028 model, built on a new platform and powered by an updated two-motor hybrid system, according to The Drive and Car and Driver.
Gas-only versions leave the lineup. The current CR-V can be bought with or without a hybrid powertrain, and Car and Driver reports that more than half of the CR-Vs Honda sells are already hybrids.
What Honda has said about the powertrain
Honda says the new hybrid unit will deliver a large gain in standard power and efficiency, and that its engineers widened the range in which the engine runs efficiently. No output figures have been released. For comparison, Car and Driver notes that the base four-cylinder in today’s CR-V makes 190 horsepower, while the current hybrid makes 205 horsepower and is rated at up to 38 mpg combined.
Car and Driver reports that the fifth generation of Honda’s two-motor system again pairs with an Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder gas engine, a design that favors fuel economy over peak power. Honda is targeting an efficiency improvement of over 10 percent compared with the outgoing system.
The new platform is meant to be stiffer and lighter, and its modular design should allow more parts sharing between models. Jalopnik adds that a new electric all-wheel-drive system is part of the package and expects the setup to cost Honda less to build.
Why it matters for shoppers
Toyota took the same step a year earlier with its new RAV4, Car and Driver says, and Jalopnik says Toyota did it with the current Camry as well. The CR-V is Honda’s bestselling SUV. Jalopnik reports that Honda is on track to sell more than 400,000 of them this year, the third year in a row at that level.
Hybrids came late to the model in the United States. Jalopnik says the first CR-V hybrid arrived for the 2020 model year, and that annual hybrid sales have since grown almost tenfold to more than 50% of total CR-V sales. The outlet describes the price gap between hybrid and non-hybrid versions as relatively small. Pricing for the 2028 model has not been announced.
Production and the wider hybrid plan
According to Jalopnik, many U.S.-spec CR-Vs are built in Ohio and the rest in Indiana. Honda recently announced a new $3 billion plant in Ohio that will focus on hybrids, with gas-only and fully electric cars also planned there. Production at the plant does not start until 2029, and Honda expects annual capacity of 240,000 units.
Honda says it will introduce 15 new hybrids by 2030, most of them aimed at the American market. Car and Driver describes the CR-V as the first of several new models coming to North America by 2030.
When to expect the reveal
Reports differ on timing. Jalopnik says Honda plans to reveal the seventh-generation CR-V next year, in time for the SUV’s 30th anniversary. Car and Driver says it expects the reveal later this year. Jalopnik also expects an auto show debut and calls Detroit in January a safe bet, with Chicago in February or New York in March as other possibilities. Honda has not confirmed a venue.
Lightly camouflaged prototypes of the new CR-V have already been photographed on the road. Jalopnik says the test vehicles suggest the SUV will drop its vertical taillights.
Sources: The Drive, Car and Driver, Jalopnik
