| Road Trip Pros | Annoyances |
| ✓ Mid-40s MPG? I’ll take it! | ☓ Infotainment is decent, but nothing earth-shattering |
| ✓ Genuinely snappy, plenty of passing power | ☓ No lumbar adjustment, even on Sport Touring |
| ✓ Compliant ride | ☓ Expensive price tag |
| ✓ Useful (and not overbearing) driver assistance tech |
The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid checks a lot of boxes, but how does it fare on an LA-to-Denver road trip?
This isn’t the first time we’ve had a hybrid Honda Civic on the market — but it’s supposed to be the best yet.
While the third-generation Insight was always a well-intentioned car that aimed to woo some folks out of the Toyota Prius or Hyundai Elantra Hybrid, it just didn’t bring the sort of brand recognition and staying power as well-established models like the Accord and the Civic. So, you brought your small hybrid offering back under the Civic banner to ratchet up adoption, and you know what? Even before turning a wheel, that was a good decision.
You see, the eleventh-generation Civic outsells even the Accord by two-to-one, with dealers shifting nearly 60,000 units in March alone, putting up numbers that bring it into contention with its best-selling CR-V. Add in a hybrid option — as Honda’s also offered with the CR-V and Accord over the past several years — and you have a combination that is truly tough to beat…but perhaps a road trip will reveal some flaws we wouldn’t catch in our standard media drive or week-long fleet test?
I certainly hoped so, as I grabbed the key to a 2025 Civic Hybrid Sport Touring hatchback Honda provided the TFL team for a three-month long-term loan. Over that period, we want to get a far better sense of just how effectively the automaker pitches its car against mainstays like the Toyota Prius and Corolla Hybrid, especially as the need for a more efficient, lest costly to own car is at the top of folks’ minds as they try to navigate today’s market. After sampling the sedan in Montreal and the hatch in Nashville, I was able to give this car a much longer shakedown, driving it 1,200 miles from Los Angeles back to our base in Boulder, Colorado.
Covering the basics
Before setting out, I already had a good idea what to expect based on those past couple media trips. Under the hood, Honda’s given the 2025 Civic Hybrid a familiar two-motor setup. The gas engine in this equation, a 2.0-liter Atkinson cycle four-cylinder, typically works with the first of two electric motors to generate electricity, then that energy is sent to the second drive motor, powering the front wheels. At higher speeds, Honda uses a lock-up clutch between the generator and that second motor, allowing the gas engine to directly drive the wheels. While it’s not quite as potent as the system powering the Accord or CR-V, the Civic Hybrid still manages a respectable 200 horsepower peak output (same as the 1.5-liter turbocharged Si), and up to 232 lb-ft of torque to the front wheels.
That sort of on-paper performance also puts Honda’s compact hybrid ahead of rivals like the Toyota Corolla Hybrid as well as the Hyundai Elantra Hybrid, and even the dramatically improved Prius. Official EPA figures put the hatchback model at 50 City / 45 Highway / 48 Combined mpg, with a total driving range of 595 miles for every 12.4-gallon tank of fuel. Opt for the slightly less practical sedan, and you’ll benefit from 1-2 mpg better fuel economy, but lower driving range thanks to the smaller 10.6-gallon fuel tank (for packaging reasons, since there’s less space to fit a larger fuel tank with the 1.06-kWh battery pack).
In terms of styling and dimensions, the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid is virtually identical to its gas-powered counterparts, regardless of whether you choose the sedan or hatch. Up front, updated Civic models get a mildly tweaked front fascia, with sedans getting darker tail lamps. Inside, Sport Touring models like this one get an updated 9-inch infotainment system with Google built-in apps and a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster. All other Civic models, including the base Sport Hybrid, get a smaller 7-inch unit, and do not get leather-trimmed seats, Bose premium audio system, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto capability (though you can still plug in), or wireless phone charging.
Getting off to a good start
As horrific as the stories can be trying to navigate around Los Angeles, sticking to the freeways is still the quickest option when you’re staring down a 16-hour-plus drive back home, not accounting for stops. Fortunately, the traffic gods smiled upon me as I hopped on the notorious 405 freeway on the first part of my homeward journey. Right off the bat, you notice just how much power the Civic Hybrid has to give. Not only does it have the grunt to get out of its own way accelerating onto a 65 mph freeway, but the Hybrid hatchback’s specific spring and shock tuning as well as the “Active Sound Control”, and the Sport Touring’s wheel resonators, make for a quiet and dignified cruising experience once you’re up to speed.
Getting out on the highway also gives you the ability to test out Honda’s plethora of driver assistance features, baked into the Honda Sensing suite. That includes standard lane-keep assist, road departure mitigation, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control and, if you aren’t paying quite as much attention as you should be, forward collision warning and collision mitigation braking.
Nearly all Civic rivals sport similar tech these days, but what made Honda’s system more pleasant to use is that it’s not absurdly overbearing in terms of keeping you in your lane. Keep in mind, though, the system works best when the lanes are clearly marked and you aren’t dealing with inclement weather. It also insists you keep your hands on the wheel since it is not an autonomous system, and will ping you to put in some steering effort about every 5-10 seconds before sounding an alarm, and disengaging the system entirely if you still don’t respond after that.
For the first couple hours working through the Inland Empire toward I-15, the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid offered a compliant ride, while the hybrid system was nearly imperceptible when the gas engine did need to kick in to maintain highway speeds. Because of Honda’s EV-like, direct-drive approach, the most you’ll hear of the engine under light acceleration and cruising is the EV light shutting off in the gauge cluster. Under harder runs, the engine will spring to life — though the bulk of what you’re hearing is fake engine noise that makes the Hybrid sound like an Si. That said, I enjoy the Si sounds so that doesn’t particularly bother me, though I know some folks hate augmented engine noise under any circumstance.
Settling into a 1,200-mile road trip revealed a couple annoying details…
On the whole, the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid was making a ton of sense as a competent road trip machine…with two exceptions. Sticking with that whole EV-like approach for a moment, Honda offers up paddle shifters with four levels of regenerative braking. Leave the car to its own devices, and it’ll work out how much regen to apply based on the battery’s state-of-charge and the sort of incline you’re driving on. Broadly speaking, it works in the sense of making the Civic Hybrid feel like it has a conventional transmission, even when it doesn’t.
If you are looking for a more bona fide EV experience, though, some words of caution: Even the most aggressive level doesn’t slow you down enough to mimic one-pedal driving. Annoyingly, after you start accelerating again, the system also reverts to its lowest setting, so you have to click back down a few pegs if you prefer not to adjust the amount of charge trickling back into the battery through the brake pedal.
Another (admittedly minor) gripe: One of the first things I go for when settling into the long cruise are the seat adjustments. And while the leather-trimmed seats in the Sport Touring Hybrid are reasonably comfortable, what you don’t get, even on this $34,755 top-end model, is any kind of lumbar adjustment. It’s a tiny detail and I wouldn’t expect anything fancy like four-way lumbar support or massaging seats, but still…to me, the lack of just a little lower back support is a weird omission for a car that brings a ton of other useful features to the party.
So, what’s the Civic Hybrid like to actually drive?
Taking the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid hatchback onto the LA freeways and out into the vast expanses of the Mojave desert was a good opportunity to test out the car’s ride quality and assistance systems. The whole point of a “road trip”, though, should be to at least occasionally leave the Interstates and explore a bit. Fortunately, the hills and canyons that dominate the Southwest provided ample opportunity to test this Civic’s handling capability, as well as its punch.
Even with the extra weight of a battery pack and electric motors onboard, Honda packaged this Civic in such a way that it loses little of the fun factor. Sure, in the main the Civic Si or the Type R on high-performance summer tires will out-grip and out-corner the hybrid, which in this case rides on Goodyear Assurance Finesse all-seasons. Even so, the Civic Hybrid hatchback offers remarkable body control when the road gets twisty, while the steering is well-weighted and precise (and the Individual drive mode lets you tune the steering feel, as well as the throttle response, engine sound and gauge style to your liking).
Whether you’re rolling down a dead-straight Interstate or on a twisty back road, the new Civic Hybrid can be a comfortable cruiser and a fun corner-carving companion while still returning remarkably good fuel economy. Better yet, even though 200 horsepower may not sound like much, Honda tuned the powertrain to smoothly deliver all the passing power you need when you need it, before calming right back down into the cruise.
The interior is familiar, with a few quality-of-life tweaks
Honda struck a nice balance between style and ergonomics with the 11th-generation Civic, and that carries through unmarred to the 2025 Hybrid models. If you’ve sat in a fairly new Civic, then you’ll feel right at home with the honeycomb mesh for the HVAC vents, the simple gear selector, tactile and satisfyingly clicky climate control knobs and straightforward steering wheel buttons. It’s no muss, no fuss approach just works, and the 2025 Honda Civic lineup (hybrid or not) gets updated 3.0-amp USB-C ports in the front for easy connectivity if you have a newer smartphone.
Then there’s the infotainment system. On the whole, the Hybrid Sport Touring’s upgraded 9-inch setup with the Google apps baked in is a welcome improvement, akin to what Honda’s rolled out through its other revamped models. Functionally speaking, it’s not that different than the preceding system, but having Google Maps native in the system is nice if you don’t want to rely on phone projection, and the new system is a bit snappier than what came before. But here’s the rub: All the other Civic trims get the smaller 7-inch unit without Google Built-in, which feels even smaller with the annoyingly large sidebar and top bar taking up real estate. The only time those bars go away is when you plug in to Apple CarPlay or Android Auto (but at least you have the option, even if the Sport Touring is the only model to offer wireless phone projection).
You’d think the hybrid setup would compromise interior space, but Honda packaged this car so you only lose 2.4 cubic feet throughout the entire cabin, so it’s hardly noticeable. Even better, the hatchback maintains exactly the same amount of cargo space as its purely gas-fed counterpart, offering 24.5 cubic feet with the second row in place. With the seats folded, that expands out to 46.2 cubic feet, which instantly makes the hatchback my go-to for best all-around road tripper and daily commuter over the sedan’s 14.5-cubic-foot trunk.
Apart from pretty good space and comfortable seats, the 2025 Civic Hybrid hatchback has a thoroughly Civic interior, and that’s that. The rear passengers don’t get HVAC vents or USB-C ports of their own sadly, so folks in the back may not have the best time on a long trip. That said, apart from the lack of lumbar adjustment, the front seats are a thoroughly pleasant and comfortable place to be for you and your plus-one.
All right, so the Civic Hybrid claims awesome fuel economy. Is it actually that good?
From the deserts and canyons of Arizona and Utah to the 11,158-feet Eisenhower Tunnel in Colorado (site of the world-famous Ike Gauntlet, of course), I expected the uphill climb from LA to hamper the Civic Hybrid’s 45-50 mpg figures a bit. The majority of this 1,200-mile trip — even on the back roads I alluded to earlier — ran at highway (55+ mph) speeds. So, among the Civic Hybrid hatchback’s 50 City / 45 Highway / 48 Combined mpg ratings, we’re eyeing something closer to that 45 mpg highway rating.
Over a 1,189.5-mile trip from Los Angeles to our headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, including a few small detours along the way, I spent a total of $89.21 for 27.68 gallons of fuel (Honda recommends 87 Octane for the Civic Hybrid, and that’s what I stuck with here). While the trip computer suggests a fuel economy rating of 45.5 mpg — more or less right on the money — the actual math works out to 42.97 mpg over the entire trip.
Here’s a closer look at how the Civic Hybrid performed on each leg of the journey, starting with a full tank in LA:
| Fuel Stop | Segment miles | Gallons Used | Fuel Cost | Segment Average MPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1) Kingman, AZ | 364.1 mi | 9.1 gal | $28.20 | 40.01 mpg |
| 2) Flagstaff, AZ | 151.4 mi (515.5 total) | 4.13 gal | $12.75 | 36.7 mpg |
| 3) Moab, UT | 317.2 mi (832.7 total) | 6.29 gal | $23.75 | 50.43 mpg |
| 4) Superior, CO | 356.8 mi (1,189.5 total) | 8.16 gal | $25.21 | 43.73 mpg |
| Full trip totals | 1,189.5 mi | 27.68 gal | $89.91 ($0.07/mile) | 42.97 mpg |
It’s worth noting that this particular 2025 Honda Civic Sport Touring Hybrid had just 701 miles on the clock when I picked it up. It stands to reason that we may be better results down the road since we’re just barely beyond the break-in period, and our recent tests have shown a remarkable difference in fuel economy after we put some miles on.
We’re testing this Civic Hybrid hatchback over the next few months, so I’ll be sure to post another update down the road. Even though the trip computer seems a little optimistic for this nearly 1,200-mile road trip, 43-ish mpg is still mightily impressive, considering I spent most of trip at highway speeds and made no effort whatsoever to hypermile these results.
Road Trip Verdict: The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid is the Civic to buy (with one catch)
When I drove the Civic Hybrid hatch in Nashville, I mentioned that I couldn’t make up my mind between buying this car or the Si, if I were actually in the market. Both ride on the same platform and have the same general set of features, but target different demographics. The Si is sedan only, but exclusively comes with a 6-speed manual transmission (and that’s increasingly difficult to find these days…). The Hybrid, for its part, offers up better practicality with the hatchback option and significantly better fuel economy. I’d argue the Sport Touring is also a bit more comfortable, what with the less aggressive leather seats (or even the cloth ones, if you go for the base Sport Hybrid).
And as much as I love both the Civic Si and the Type R as they rage against the dying of the light by keeping that third pedal…for the vast majority of you folks shopping a new car out there, this Civic Hybrid hathback is a no-brainer. Not only is it the one I’d lean toward as a long-term commuter and road tripper, but it’s winning me over as one of the best road trip cars for the money, if you can handle the one catch.
That one catch is, of course, is the price tag. We are still talking about an economy car here, and the Sport Hybrid hatch’s $31,300 asking price is $2,700 more than the standard Sport, with its 150-horsepower 2.0-liter engine and no electric assist. In the long-term, that extra cash is worth it for the added performance and fuel economy, but spending upward of $35,000 for a small hatchback (plus taxes and registration fees, remember) could be a tough ask if you’re shopping for a compact on a tight budget.
Still, given the current car-buying climate and if you can swing it, the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid hatchback is an excellent choice, all things considered.
Check out how it compares to a close rival, the Hyundai Elantra Hybrid, below:
