Honda Is Working On A New HR-V Crossover Just For America: News

honda hr-v teaser
Honda teased its next HR-V crossover for the European market, but we’ll get a different, bespoke model here in the U.S. (Photos: Honda)

A new Honda HR-V is coming.

Honda’s smallest crossover has been kicking for seven years now, with a sprinkling of updates along the way. It’s time for a change, and the automaker published a statement Monday morning laying out its direction for the model moving forward. Until this point, the HR-V has been a global market car, based on the Fit platform and called the “Vezel” in the Japanese market.

That won’t be the case moving forward. Instead, our next HR-V will be specific to the American market. Their full statement reads:

“The development of a successor to the Honda HR-V for the U.S. market is underway. This new HR-V will be designed to meet the distinct needs of U.S. customers, and will differ from the Honda Vezel/HR-V that will be introduced in other regions. Honda will have more information to share regarding the next-generation Honda HR-V designed for the U.S. market closer to launch.”

July 2018 Crossover Sales Report
The HR-V saw its last minor update in 2019, but is largely similar to the original launch version.

How will this HR-V differ?

Other than saying it will be different, Honda hasn’t yet mentioned how our HR-V will change from the overseas model. Since Honda no longer sells the Fit on which the HR-V is based here in the U.S., we expect this new model to change somewhat dramatically from the previous version. There’s some room for the diminutive crossover to grow before it scrapes up against the next largest entry in Honda’s lineup, the CR-V.

As for European buyers, the next-generation model will see an electrified variant, as does the tiny Fit hatchback. There’s no exact reveal date for the next U.S.-spec HR-V, but we should know more later this year. Whatever the case, we don’t expect it to have a manual transmission, since that version already died a couple years ago: