Purely electric cars have not worked. They must be recharged too often, and recharging takes too long. The battery packs are so large and heavy that they severely harm the performance and functionality of the vehicle.

For these reasons, auto makers are now shifting their attention from all-electric vehicles to "hybrids," which use both an internal combustion (gasoline or diesel) engine and an electric motor. This technology is not entirely new. The diesel-electric locomotives that have powered trains for decades use one form of hybrid powertrain. In these locomotives, a diesel engine spins an electric generator that powers electric motors that drive the wheels. Since the diesel engine does not directly drive the wheels, but only works indirectly through the electric motors, this is called a "series" hybrid.

This type of hybrid is very efficient because the diesel engine can be kept in its most efficient operating range all the time. The downsides for automotive use are that this type of hybrid is very heavy, because the electric motors must be large enough to provide all of the power to the wheels, and it feels much different than a conventional powertrain to drive.

For these reasons, for automotive use a "parallel" hybrid seems to be the favored design, at least for now. In a parallel hybrid, both the internal combustion engine and an electric motor drive the wheels. In general, parallel hybrids also contain the series layout: the engine also turns a generator, which charges a relatively small set of batteries, which powers one or more electric motors. The electric motor and generator are typically the same unit; electronics can convert the motor into a generator and back again as conditions dictate. The benefit of a hybrid as opposed to a purely electric vehicle is that you never have to plug the vehicle into an electrical outlet. You just refuel it like a conventional vehicle.

Why make a hybrid at all? Compared to a regular automobile, they promise to be both more fuel efficient and more ecologically sound, especially in city driving. There are at least two reasons for this. First, regenerative braking can be used. When the driver hits the brakes, the vehicle can be slowed down at least in part by using the wheels to turn an electric generator that charges the batteries. While not as powerful as brakes, the generator when in operation does slow the vehicle considerably. If more powerful braking is needed than the generator can provide, then conventional brakes are called into use. In this manner, at least some of the energy earlier used to accelerate the vehicle is recaptured. The second potential source of improved fuel economy and lower emissions is that, with some designs, in low-speed driving the engine can remain off, so that only the electric motor is used. Because both of these factors are most used in slow, stop-and-go city driving, hybrids have their largest benefits in this scenario.

While Honda's Insight was the first hybrid sold in the U.S., Toyota actually introduced the first one worldwide. The Prius went on sale in Japan back in 1997. It was not sold in the U.S. initially because market research indicated it was far too weak for American drivers. Also, Japanese do far more stop-and-go city driving than most Americans (the average driving speed in Tokyo is somewhere around 10 mph). Once Toyota developed a more powerful version of the engine, 70 vs. 57 horsepower, the vehicle went on sale in the U.S. I drove one then, and found it, well, interesting. My review, the introduction to which will now seem quite familiar, can be found here.

The Prius hasn’t sold badly, proving there is at least a limited market for such vehicles. Honda’s Insight has not done so well, likely because of its impractical two-seat configuration. Perhaps in reaction to the moderate success of the Prius, and to keep its technological and economical reputation intact, for 2003 Honda has introduced a hybrid version of its Civic. Because I find the technology intriguing, and because I wanted to see how this car compared to the Prius, I took one for a drive.

Honda Civic Hybrid Reliability

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Styling

What’s there to say here? It looks just like a regular Civic aside from a unique grille, alloy wheels, and a small spoiler on the trunk. The grille and wheels do lend it a classier look than the standard Civic sedan, even if the latter have been included for fuel economy reasons (alloy wheels weight less than steel ones). If you want a distinctively styled car, the Prius with its hybrid-only. slab-sided, tall and narrow body is the way to go. If you want a car that looks upscale and refined, then you’ll want the Civic. It looks just like a normal car, because it shares all of its sheetmetal with one.

The use of the standard Civic body means that the Civic Hybrid looks and feels like a much more substantial car than the Prius. The doors especially impart a sensation of higher quality.

The Civic Hybrid is available in only three exterior colors: white, silver, and "shoreline mist" (a silverish light bronze based on the chip in the brochure). I generally don’t discuss colors in my reviews, but this palette is notable for its breadth—or actually the lack thereof. All of these colors will help the Civic Hybrid blend into the crowd—nothing to draw attention here.

Inside the Civic Hybrid is also 95% standard Civic, which means it is cleanly styled in a very tasteful manner and uses high quality, if not exactly luxurious, materials. The Prius’s interior is unconventionally laid out and seems quite avant-garde in comparison. Unlike in the Prius, nothing inside the car struck me as cheap. The beige-only cloth is moderately luxurious, neither chintzy nor rich. The instruments and controls are exceedingly clear—no small feat with a hybrid. The Prius has a fancy flat panel in the center of the dash that graphically displays what’s happening among the various parts of the hybrid powertrain. The Civic, in contrast, simply includes a charge-assist bar in one of the three circular instrument nacelles. A second bar displays how fully charged the battery pack is. It might not be as fancy as the Prius’s display, and thus won’t serve to entertain passengers, but it’s much less gimmicky and easier to use as an natural, integral part of driving the car. This is important, as these gauges help you drive the car for optimal efficiency. Like an increasing number of displays these days, the Civic Hybrid’s unique instruments are lit all of the time, in this case in an easy on the eyes brilliant blue. (Much like VW gauges at night, but all the time.) They look upscale here, and are also easy to use.

Accommodations

Honda has long favored a driving position where the driver sits fairly low yet the dash and side window beltline are much lower yet. For me, this is ideal. I don’t like to sit very high, but I like extremely good visibility all around, both for safety’s sake and because I like an airy ambiance. The Civic Hybrid continues this Honda tradition. In a Prius you sit significantly higher up, and while the dash is also higher than in the Civic the view forward somewhat resembles that in a minivan. I personally prefer the more conventional driving position of the Civic.

The front seats are reasonably roomy, at least for a compact car, and seemed to support me in all of the right places. Comfort is adequate, but not outstanding. The seats have moderately sized bolsters, but this car isn’t meant for hard cornering anyway. More on that later.

The rear seat is adequate for two moderately sized adults. Three will fit in a pinch. The seat is fairly low to the floor, such that thigh support is marginal. The Prius, with its higher seat cushion, does better here even though the stats suggest it has a bit less legroom. The Honda interior feels wider than that in the Toyota, but the stats suggest they are about the same. The Honda’s more contoured, shorter door panels might play a role here. With less door panel to catch the eye, the interior might just seem wider.

The battery pack, located behind the rear seat, does take away some trunk volume, and obviously eliminates the regular Civic’s fold-down rear seat feature. The remaining trunk is just adequate in size, but at least it’s very regularly shaped and not especially shallow in any dimension. The hinges are the conventional intrusive type.

On the Road

Okay, here’s what the hybrid is all about. The Prius, as I detailed in my review of that car, provides a most unique driving experience. You can clearly feel all of the different systems come in and out of play. The transitions aren’t terribly smooth. The Honda, in comparison, drives far more like a conventional car, at least a conventional car with a CVT automatic. Accelerating, the electric assist cut in and out seamlessly. It’s major benefit is that it pumps up the power/torque curve at low RPMs, adding about 20 ft-lbs. at 3000 RPM, and the Hybrid does move reasonably well from a stop. At high RPM, there’s less impact: the electric assist adds 8 horsepower to the 1.3 liter gas engine’s 85, for a total of 93. Since the 1.7 liter engine in the regular Civic produces 115 horsepower, the Hybrid, which also weighs a couple hundred lbs. more, isn’t going to win any drag races. Push moderately on the accelerator, and the Civic Hybrid does okay. Push harder, and the engine seems to go soft. The CVT (continuously variable transmission) does its best, holding the engine up in its powerband as the car accelerates, but there’s only so much there.

If you’re after speed, this isn’t the way to go. What makes this car an interesting drive is adapting your driving style to get the most out of the powertrain. By keeping tabs on the charge-assist, battery charge, and fuel economy gauges, you can modulate how quickly you accelerate and brake to maximize economy. Fun in its own way.

I should note that the CVT in this application resembled that in the Prius. (For a fairly detailed description of how a CVT works, see my Audi A4 review here.) It tends to jump to a given RPM based on throttle position—and whether the gear selector was in D, S, or L—and then hold the engine there. To ears attuned to a conventional, stepped gear powertrain, this sounds a bit strange, like a manual where the clutch is slipping. The car accelerates, but the engine note stays the same. We’re used to hearing the engine note rise as speed increases, then fall with each shift. I’ve also driven the Audi A4 with a CVT, and that one sounded more normal to my ear. I think Audi dialed in a bit of RPM gain so its powertrain would sound more normal. I don’t mean to make a big deal out of this, but it might be the thing that’s hardest to get used to with the Civic Hybrid.

One feature present in the Prius but absent here is the ability to proceed based on the electric motor alone in slow traffic. This might be because the Honda pairs a more powerful gas engine with a weaker electric engine, such that the latter wouldn’t do a terribly good job moving the car on its own. In the Prius the gas engine produces only 70 horsepower at 4500 RPM, but the electric motor adds 44 horsepower from a very low 1010 RPM up to 5600 RPM. Through whatever math Toyota is using, the combined output comes to 98 horsepower. While the engine in the Honda is more powerful, its electric motor's peak horsepower is 13@4000, with a combined total of 93.

How the engine and electric motor are connected might also play a role. In the Honda, the electic motor appears to be sandwiched between the engine and transmission and directly connected to the former. This might mean that the electric motor can only turn when the engine is also turning. Although a clutch could have been used to disengage the engine, it appears that no such clutch is present. In the Prius, I believe that the engine and electric motor are joined through the transmission. Since they are not directly connected, they can drive the car independently.

Or maybe Honda just decided this feature made little sense in American conditions, where people don’t drive at a crawl in heavy traffic to quite the same extent they do in Japan. One benefit is that the gas engine is running the entire time you’re moving, avoiding any sharp transition from electric-only to hybrid propulsion. The smaller size of the electric motor, such that it is truly playing an assist-only function, likely plays a role in the superior smoothness of the Civic Hybrid’s powertrain as well.

Like the Prius the Civic Hybrid automatically shuts its engine off when you brake to a stop. It then silenty restarts (using the motor/generator as a starter unless the battery pack is fully discharged) the instant you remove your foot from the brake pedal. A few times during my test drive the computer must have somehow figured out I wasn’t going to be stopped for long—perhaps from the amount of pressure I put on the brake, and didn’t shut the engine down. If you come to a stop, then roll a bit, then stop again, it also keeps the engine running. Even if I waited a while it would not shut the engine down a second time in the same stop. One thing to think about if you’re going for maximum fuel economy here—when you stop, stay stopped until you’re really ready to go.

I didn’t drive the car long enough to measure fuel economy myself. The EPA ratings are 48/47 with the CVT, 46/51 with the five-speed. The Prius’s ratings are similar: 52/45. This is actually a bit of a shock. The higher city number indicates that the Prius stays close to its original mission—efficient operation in downtown Tokyo. Electric-only operation may have helped here, but I suspect that the Prius’s larger electric motor/generator simply makes the most sense in city driving. The Civic, in contrast, actually does a tad better than the Prius on the highway, where much American driving is done. That the ratings overall or so close is a shocker because the Prius was designed from a clean sheet of paper for hybrid power, while the Civic Hybrid is, well, a converted Civic. You’d expect Honda’s lack of a clean sheet to entail compromises, but I could not find any. The cars even weigh about the same, one area where I would have expected Toyota with its purpose-built car to do much better. It certainly makes me wonder why Toyota even bothered to design a unique body for the Prius. The Prius’s more complicated powertrain also appears to be giving little if anything back for the compromises it imposes.

The Prius's powertrain is more environmentally sound than the Civic Hybrid's, meeting SULEV rather than ULEV emissions standards. While ULEV is already very low, SULEV is 84% lower. So some of Toyota's more complicated powertrain design seems to have paid off.

When braking the drag of the generator recharging the battery pack can be felt--but unlike in the Prius its operation is seamless. I got the sense that as with the powertrain the conventional brakes are never totally replaced. Rather, the generator only supplements the braking force instead of ever taking this task over entirely, as the Prius’s does in light braking. This eliminates obvious transitions because there are none. The strange, non-linear feel of the Prius’s brakes is avoided here. The smaller motor/generator may be behind this difference as well. But I must ask again, where is the payoff for the Toyota’s more intrusive system?

Aggressive driving quickly overwhelms the low-rolling-resistance tires, but this isn’t the car for aggressive drivers anyway. What counts here is that the Civic Hybrid handles well in normal driving, and especially in the sort of driving that makes the most of the powertrain. The electric-assist steering is well-weighted and provides better road feel than most such systems, and much better than the unnatural, elastic-feeling system in the Prius. In turns the Civic Hybrid leans much less than the taller Prius, and generally feels much more composed atop its wheels. No bibbly-bobblies here.

This is not to say the car’s reflexes are sharp. Either because of the electric (as opposed to hydraulic) assist, or because of the Hybrid’s additional weight, and likely for both reasons, the Civic Hybrid does have a heavier, more fluid, altogether more relaxed feel than Civics I’ve driven in the past. I haven’t driven the current generation Civic, but suspect it feels like those past cars and not like this one. This heavier feel is a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. The Hybrid lacks the frisky quality of Civics I’ve enjoyed in the past, but it feels more substantial and even luxurious as a result. It feels like a larger car than it is. It also feels like a larger car than the Prius, even though it is only a few inches longer and weighs a bit less. The Prius felt very much like an economy car.

Similarly, the ride is quite composed, with a similarly fluid feel. The salesperson claimed that the Hybrid rides much better than the regular Civic, and she might be right. Road and wind noise levels are moderate, a bit lower than those in the Prius if memory serves.

Warranty

The warranty on most of the car is Honda's typical 3 years/36,000 miles. The battery pack, however, is warranteed for 8 years/80,000 miles. Toyota's warranty on the Prius is arguably better, with the same basic warranty but 5 years/60,000 miles on the entire powertrain.

Pricing

The Civic Hybrid with CVT is $21,000, $500 more than the Prius. But the Civic Hybrid has side airbags and cruise control standard, while these go for $250 each on the Prius. So the prices are the same. It should be clear by now which I think is the best use for 21,000 of you green green bills. Be aware that both of these cars qualify for a $2,000 tax deduction, the value of which depends on your income tax bracket.

How much does the hybrid system add to the cost of the car? This is hard to say, because no regular Civic has precisely the same equipment level as the quite lavishly equipped Hybrid (ABS, side airbags, alloys, power windows and locks, cruise control, automatic climate control, AM/FM/CD). The LX comes fairly close, lacking the ABS, automatic climate control, and CD. For 2002 it stickered for $16,600. The EX has ABS and a CD player, but also has a much more powerful engine and a sunroof (but no alloys). For 2002 it stickered for $18,500. Finally, the coupe (but not the sedan) is available in a high-fuel-economy model, the HX, which is even available with a CVT like the Hybrid. While EPA ratings for the LX with conventional automatic are 30/38, for the HX with CVT they’re 35/40. Put another way, the Hybrid improves on the HX by 13/7, or roughly 30% in combined driving. The 2002 HX lists for $15,300. This price includes power locks, cruise control, and alloy wheels, but lacks ABS, power windows, and a CD player.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guestimate that the Hybrid costs an extra $3,000 once equipment is equalized, before that tax deduction. Is this worth it? If you drive the standard 12,000 miles or so per year, it’s going to take many, many years to earn back the extra money, especially since the regular Civic is one of the most fuel efficient non-hybrid cars on the road. But people aren’t buying such a car to save money. They want to have the best fuel efficiency possible, and perhaps the bleeding edge technology has an appeal for them as well. Let’s face it, how many other $21,000 cars qualify as conversation pieces? By this measure, the Civic Hybrid seems quite reasonably priced. Especially since it entails fewer compromises than the Prius.

Last Words

The Civic Hybrid is a whole generation ahead of the Prius. It uses a less extreme, less complex hybrid powertrain to achieve equivalent fuel economy while driving much more like a conventional car. The Prius’s weirdness in every possible way might have its appeal for some, especially those who want everyone to know they are driving something different. And that flat panel display has much entertainment value. But the Civic Hybrid is a much better car, and shows much more clearly where everyday transportation is heading. It still does not come close to the performance of a conventional Civic, but at least it has much of the feel of a conventional car.

While I’d give the Civic Hybrid only three stars evaluated as a conventional car, because Honda has advanced the hybrid art so much I’m giving it five.

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Amount Paid (US$): 21,000
Model and Options: CVT