Honda provides us with the first glimpse of the upcoming next-gen Civic Hatch.
Honda has shown a teaser image of its upcoming Civic Hatch which will be fully unveiled June 24.
However, we’ve already seen the new Honda Civic sedan unveiled in the US a month ago.
Buyers can expect plenty of change with the new model, and in some markets it looks set to adopt hybrid power for the first time, while it’s also been subject to an intensive redesign inside and out.
We’ll need to see the Civic in hatchback form to get a true gauge of the design changes, but the firm says it has targeted a cleaner look for the Mk11, with the US market sedan version chasing a more “premium” look.
The front end adopts a more horizontal look with flatter LED headlights and more squared off nose, complemented by new front grille proportions. Now, the lower section is larger with the grille around the badge smaller. It’s a similar look to the one introduced on the new HR-V and the Jazz.
The interior should translate over, and it marks a huge departure from what we know in the Mk10 model. A new, de-cluttered dashboard is the star of the show. It’s packaged completely differently, with a long, horizontal plane with ventilation and switchgear propping up a new floating style touchscreen infotainment system. The standard unit sizes up at seven-inches, with a nine-inch system optional. Honda says the new system comes with simpler menus and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.
It’s joined by fully digital instrumentation for the first time in the Civic. A new customisable 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster sits behind a redesigned steering wheel, but entry-level versions of the Civic use a seven-inch cluster, which retains a traditional speedometer.
Elsewhere, the brand points to the usage of higher quality interior materials, especially on touchpoints, while the seats have been redesigned too.
The new Civic makes use of an evolved version of the previous-generation’s platform. But the brand claims an eight per cent increase in torsional rigidity, for improved ride, handling and rolling refinement. This is combined with the wider rear track and a new aluminium front sub-frame, plus re-calibrated power steering.
Driver assistance features have been updated with a new version of the brand’s Sensing safety system. It no longer uses a camera and radar to read the road ahead for functions such as automatic emergency braking and identifying other cars, pedestrians and cyclists. The Sensing system now uses a single camera, with a much wider field of view than before.
Joining this hardware update, the Sensing system gains Traffic Jam Assist for low-speed semi-autonomous driving assistance, while the adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist functions behave and react more naturally to the road ahead.