2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid review hello and welcome to Seville we’ve been flown out here to try out this new CRV which to date has only been available with a 1.5 liter turbo petrol that isn’t necessarily suitable to those.
Who do big mileages the answer Honda claims is this hybrid car we should get much better fuel economy and give you ultra refined evie driving we’re here to find out whether that’s
true or not and to give you the five key important facts you need to know about this new head over to check out the new car buying section to see what great
deals you can get on a CRV or any one of its numerous large SUV rivals Honda isn’t completely green to hybrid systems having brought one of the first mass-produced hybrid cars to the UK
2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid review
market in 1999 this new system is a little bit different mind and uses three different driving modes in order to maximize fuel economy these modes are easy drive hybrid drive an engine drive
to help you understand what’s going on there’s this screen in the driver display telling you where the power is coming from at any given moment neavy
mode the car will use electricity from the battery pan to provide power to the electric motor which then drives the wheels but since the range is less than three miles most the time will stay in
hybrid Drive which uses the engine to provide power to the electric motor that then drives the wheels while also diverting any excess energy back to the battery pack for use later at higher
speeds the engine will take over in engine drive mode which basically means the engine will be used to drive the CRV if the computer detects that you’re
cruising at this City speeds and this enough charge in the battery it’ll switch back to e V Drive which shuts the engine down to help reduce overall fuel
consumption speaking of fuel economy Honda quotes a combined NEDC figure of 51.4 mpg for the four-wheel drive model or 53.3 mpg for this two-wheel drive car we worked out
we’re getting about 50 mpg overall it’s actually pretty good and goes some way to making up for the loss the diesel model there is of course a price
increase of about a thousand pounds water if you go for this hybrid version over the regular petrol car we’re considering.
that this one is actually significantly more economical you shouldn’t be able to make up the difference thanks to the large exterior dimensions there’s an
awful lot of room inside the new CRV we’ve got an SR spec car here with the optional silver metallic trim the interior itself is well laid out and all
the butts controls seem to fall quite easily to hand and have a nice tactile feel to them but the overall impression is not one of a premium SUV and rivals
like the Mazda cx-5 have a much plusher interior you may also notice we haven’t got a traditional gear leaver rather this more futuristic push button
arrangement which does at least it free up a lot of space but might take a bit of getting used to from se spec onwards you get this 7-inch infotainment system
which does feature apple carplay and android auto unfortunately it’s not the most easy infotainment system to use on the market and can be slow to respond
the CRV Hybrid is only a five seater which is similar to that of its closest competitors this is because the battery pack occupies the space where the six
and seven seats would have gone mind you the third row in the standard CRV isn’t particularly spacious and you wouldn’t be able to fit a small child and their
volka booster seat in there at the same time anyway so it makes sense to leave it as a spacious five seater with a capacious boot seating three here in the
rear is actually quite straightforward because there’s lots of leg space the central hump is actually very small and the bench itself is nice and wide rivals
like the rav4 hybrid of a much larger central tunnel which gets in the way the quoted power figure is 181 PHP which is a little down the most potent petrol
engine unfortunately this Hybrid has a bit more torque so therefore gets off the line with a little bit more Authority
having said that acceleration does seem to trail off for high speeds and if you give the accelerator pedal a bit more than it’s determined to prod it sends
the revs soaring which does cause a bit of a dip the steering on this hybrid model retains the progressive weighting of the regular petrol car it is a little
bit heavier overall than rivals such as the Vox so I can take on all space let’s go to kodiak but is by no means difficult at arcing speeds like most
other hybrids the CRV incorporates regenerative braking which is used to help charge the batteries unlike other high boots though the pedal travel feels
nice and linear and avoids the awkward dead spot that plagues a lot of other systems that makes the Phill ultimate and sometimes a little bit tricky to
judge braking distances despite Honda including active noise cancellation technology and adding more sound deadening to the CRV Hybrid there’s
still plenty of road noise at speed and these large door mirrors kick up a bit of wind noise buyers of large SUV’s might be interested to know how much
their car can tow and you think with all the additional talk of this CRV hybrid you should be able to pull quite a lot unfortunately the maximum braked towing
capabilities at both the front-wheel drive all wheel drive versions is only 750 kilograms in comparison the Toyota rav4 hybrid can for sixteen
hundred and fifty kilograms which therefore means that the rav4 can pull the large Caravan where’s the CRV cannot on first acquaintance there’s plenty to
like about the new CRV hybrid.