The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Is A Green Deal That's Tough To Beat

There are many internal combustion vehicles that the electric market has no answer to. If I want a $3,000 beater truck on the used market or a brand-new lightweight sports car, I have no shortage of fume-spitters to choose from.

But the EV market is newer, less mature, less fleshed out. There are crucial internal combustion products that still haven’t been replicated with full battery power, and there’s no better example of this than the Honda Civic Hybrid.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Review

The Civic is vital because it is attainable. Honda built its business on selling affordable, fun, reliable vehicles to young customers on the upswing. The Civic has been core to that mission for decades. It has long offered a phenomenal mix of pleasant dynamics, value pricing and superb quality. The new Civic Hybrid only improves on that.

EVs may be the best way to get to a lower-emission future, but the path to victory will require many different solutions in the meantime. The electrified Civic is a great one. It’s fun to drive and great on gas, with a price that makes it far more attainable than any electric equivalent. So if high prices and limited options are keeping you from buying an EV, the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid is a damn good alternative.

(Full Disclosure: Honda loaned me a 2025 Civic Sport Hybrid sedan for a week. It arrived with a full tank of gas.)

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Review

Table of Contents

Driving Experience

The Civic Hybrid is a new-for-2025 variant for the stalwart sedan. I tested this $30,100 Honda directly after getting out of a $130,000 Mercedes-Benz EQS. You’d expect that to be a lopsided comparison, and it was; the simple, cheap Honda was far more charming than the bloated Mercedes.

Because I primarily test EVs and because automakers insist on offering only their most optioned-up models to the media, most of the cars I review are heavy, overcomplicated and expensive. Stepping into the Civic was a breath of fresh air. Its simple design and perfectly positioned controls remind me of why I fell in love with the Civic Type R during my Road & Track days.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Review

Driving around town, the 3,208-pound Honda feels sprightly, light and lively, made all the better by its hybrid powertrain. Steering is direct and responsive, and while the Sport Hybrid is no Type R, it’s an order of magnitude more engaging than any SUV on the market.

It’s also eager. The 200-horsepower hybrid drivetrain is ripped straight from the wonderful Accord Hybrid, except here it has less weight to lug around. It doles out a 232-lb-ft torque surge right off the rip thanks to that electric motor, giving it the around-town charm of a true EV. Since Honda’s clever two-motor hybrid system has no conventional transmission, it also feels far closer to an EV in operation, with none of the jarring power-blend issues I’ve had in hybrids from other automakers (Hyundai and Kia, I’m looking at you).

Of course, even the best blended powertrain can’t match the butter-smooth operation of a full-fat EV. I felt the 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder straining on highway merges, with a decent racket that didn’t scale linearly as speed increased. Honda offers variable regeneration settings via the paddles that can increase how much deceleration you get on lift-off, but there’s nothing like a true one-pedal driving mode here. No worries, though. The calibration of the braking system was perfect. You’d never guess it’s bleeding friction and regenerative braking.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Review

The rest of the on-road performance was indiscernible from the Civic’s well-known reputation. It’s plenty comfortable, but with just enough spring rate to keep it composed and entertaining on a twisty backroad. Wind and engine noise are appropriately damped, but Honda’s decades-long struggle with road noise has not yet been won. The Civic’s tires drone on the highway, and I heard some weird electronic whining when I accelerated. It was fine in small doses, but combined with the road noise and seats that could use some more support, the Civic is a great commuter but merely acceptable for longer trips. You get what you pay for.

Fuel Economy

The Civic Hybrid is rated for 50 miles per gallon city, 47 mpg highway and 49 mpg combined. I only saw efficiency in the mid-30s according to the computer, but that included some idling time along with a lot of highway on-ramps and other demanding scenarios. As with all EPA numbers, you may not hit them, but the ratings alone are impressive.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Review

A full EV would still be cleaner, but if you don’t have home charging, gassing up the little Honda may actually be cheaper. I suggest running the numbers with local public charging rates and gas prices, as this comparison can be tricky. But I know that at $0.56 per kWh at many public DC fast chargers around me, I’m paying far more than I would to gas a Civic.

Interior & Infotainment

The Civic is a $30,000 car in 2025, which unfortunately means its interior isn’t going to dazzle you. Yet Honda has mastered the art of shaving money where it makes sense and spending up where it counts. The steering wheel is great, as are the touch points for the climate system. All of the switches and panels feel nice for the price, and the build quality is unimpeachable.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Review

My Sport Hybrid tester is the cheapest way to get the Hybrid Civic, though, and the dinky screen gave it away. The 7-inch unit got the job done, but with the little buttons next to it, it felt like a relic from a bygone era. It was pretty much only good for CarPlay/Android Auto or, barring that, showing the track on a simple text screen. There wasn’t much to it, and even the backup camera was cruddy.

As someone who gets sick of giant, blinding screens, I still found the Civic’s interior charming. But if you are a more-is-more person who wants the latest tech and software, there are better options. First, you can step up to the Civic Touring and get Honda’s newer, Google-powered infotainment system on a 7-inch screen. A Chevy Equinox EV can be had for similar money as the Sport Hybrid after the tax credit, and while the rest of the interior feels cheaper than the Honda’s, the screen blows this one away.

Photo by: Honda

At least the Civic is practical. While sedans are never the best format for hauling, the Civic’s comfortable back seat and reasonable 14.8-cubic foot trunk make it good enough for most couples or small families. Those who want to load bikes and the like should step up to the hatchback, which starts at $31,300. The rest of you should be happy with the Civic, which has grown in size to be bigger than Accords of yore.

Tech Features

For better and worse, there aren’t many tech features to speak of. The Civic comes with the stuff you’d expect, including CarPlay and Android Auto, plus a digital instrument cluster. But that’s about where this train stops. Besides safety features—which I’ll get to—the Civic Hybrid is as simple as new cars come. Even the standard speakers are basic, with some of the worst sound quality I’ve heard in recent memory. At $30,100, you’re lucky it comes standard with heated seats.

All of the money here went into that sophisticated, smooth drivetrain and suspension. Since all you really need beyond that is a phone connection and climate control, I’ll call that a fair trade.

Safety & ADAS

The Civic comes standard with Honda Sensing, the company’s suite of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). It provides automatic collision braking, lane departure warning with lane keeping assist, lane centering and adaptive cruise control. Honda’s newest system has pared the front sensor suite down from a dual-camera stereoscopic system to a single-camera unit.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Review

I don’t know if that’s made it worse or if the competition got better, but the Civic’s ADAS suite is near the bottom of the bunch for me. Its lane-keeping was shaky and its adaptive cruise performance in traffic wasn’t smooth enough. I turned it off.

I don’t consider that a dealbreaker. I’ve driven plenty of $50,000 cars that don’t include lane-centering systems standard, including my own car. But note that there are plenty of non-luxury systems from companies like Hyundai, Toyota and others that blow Honda’s suite out of the water.

Honda spent more energy on the car’s passive safety systems. The Civic Hatchback received an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick + Award, the organization’s highest safety honor. The sedan is a Top Safety Pick (non plus), as it received a slightly worse “Acceptable” score in the Moderate Front Overlap test. The sedan received a five-star safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Pricing & Trims

The Civic Hybrid is offered in two trims and two body styles, with no major option packages to speak of. Here’s the starting price for each, including the destination charge:

Sport Hybrid sedan: $30,100
Sport Hybrid hatchback: $31,300
Sport Touring Hybrid sedan: $33,100
Sport Touring Hybrid hatchback: $34,400

The Touring model gets nicer wheels, a 12-speaker Bose audio system, wireless phone charging and a larger 9-inch infotainment screen with Google Built-In. Google Maps access is included on that system for three years, after which you’ll need a paid data plan to keep it running.

Verdict

If you want an affordable sedan, your cheapest (new) electric options are the $44,130 Tesla Model 3 or the $39,045 Hyundai Ioniq 6. Both are solid options, but the Hyundai only gets a $7,500 tax credit if you lease it, and the standard range model isn’t the one you want. Even with the tax credit, the Model 3 is $6,530 pricier than the Civic. (Arguably, this would compete against, say, a used Model 3 or a recent Chevrolet Bolt, but it's not especially fair to compare a new car to used ones; if we go down that road, I'd be weighing this against a massively depreciated Jaguar I-Pace, or something.)

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Review

Honda proudly notes that the Civic and Accord are the number one and two cars for buyers under 35. Both of those EV options I mentioned may be tough as “only” cars if you don’t have home charging, which seems all the more likely for the sort of young buyers that traditionally buy Civics.

So while I’d love to encourage every 20-something to go out and get an EV, I know the economic reality doesn’t support that. Not yet, anyway. And while my lease payment is actually cheaper than it would be for a Civic, the purchase price of my car is $25,000 more than this Civic.

If you’re a young buyer who wants to buy a car now, keep it for years and never worry, and things like cutting carbon emissions and gas use are top priorities, this is a stellar option. Not because it is cool, or impressive. But because it is fundamentally good. And with a 50-mpg hybrid drivetrain, it’s a bit better for the world, too.