Honda Civic Hybrid Second Generation

The second generation Civic Hybrid is based on the eighth generation Honda Civic. The following is a list of changes that were made:

• Updated to fourth generation Integrated Motor Assist (IMA).


• Camshaft profile was increased, increasing power to 93 hp (69 kW) @ 6000 rpm.


• Updated to three stage i-VTEC and VCM (Variable Cylinder Management), which permits deactivation of all four cylinders when decelerating. In this mode, the car runs only on electric power.


• Discontinued the manual transmission option.


• Increased the EPA fuel economy estimate to 40 mpg (US) (5.9 L/100 km, 16.94 km/L) city, 45 mpg (US) (5.2 L/100 km, 19.23 km/L) highway.


• Updated to 15-inch lightweight alloy wheels (later featured on the Civic DX-G in Canada as well)

Consumer Reports ran an article in April 2006 stating that HEVs would not pay for themselves over 5 years of ownership. However, this included an error with charging the "hybrid premium" twice. When corrected, the Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius did have a payback period of slightly less than 5 years. This includes conservative estimates with depreciation (seen as more depreciation than a conventional vehicle, although that is not the current norm) and with progressively-higher gas prices. In particular, the Consumer Reports article assumed $2/U.S. gallon for 3 years, $3/U.S. gallon for one year and $4/U.S. gallon the last year. As recent events have shown, this is a volatile market and hard to predict. For 2006, gas prices ranged from low $2 to low $3, averaging about $2.60/U.S. gallon.

The Civic hybrid was launched in China in November 2007 and in India in June 2008.