The Honda CR-V Goes Hybrid—Watch Out, Toyota – IT’S ON LIKE fat guys in thongs.
The Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V compact crossovers are the super-sumos of affordable family transportation. These are not only the bestselling vehicles in their segment (#1 and #2, respectively); they are the most popular vehicles in the U.S. market that aren’t trucks. The Earth shakes when these two bump bellies.
For many of the faithful, the only way Toyota could make the RAV4 better would be to offer it in a fuel-saving, gas-electric hybrid version. That wish was granted for the 2016 model year. Toyota followed last year with a plug-in hybrid version, the RAV4 Prime, that relies on the same principles as the Prius Prime and offers a nominal all-electric range of 42 miles.
The Honda falls short of its Toyota rival in rated efficiency, but not by much, and not without gaining something.
Our test car, the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid, is the company’s highly anticipated, slightly overmatched answer. The Honda falls short of its rival in rated efficiency, but not by much, and not without gaining something in return. Honda’s design retains a mechanical all-wheel drive system while the RAV4’s Prime relies on a rear-mounted electric motor for AWD. Under the right, or wrong, conditions, the Honda can shunt as much as 40% of engine torque to the rear wheels. Point for Honda-san.
In the typical duty cycles of suburban driving, surface streets and commuting, the CR-V Hybrid glides and swells with the refinement, linear response and lush quiet of a fully electric car. It’s only when you spend time at 80-plus mph, or climb any kind of grade, God forbid, that it begins to sound like a one of Honda’s fine family of portable generators, the sort one finds droning behind curbside lunch trucks or the face-painting tent at a Renaissance faire.
At this point I would like to clear the room of anyone who is not a huge nerd. Ready? Sharing major systems with Honda’s Accord Hybrid and Clarity, the CR-V Hybrid typically operates like an electric car with a gasoline battery. Below highway speeds, almost all of the motive force comes courtesy of a 181-hp traction motor, bristling with 232 pound-feet of torque. The super-efficient 2.0-liter, Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder onboard (143 hp) typically acts as a gas-powered generator, cycling on and off as needed to supply current to the motor. The 1.4-kWh lithium battery under the cargo floor acts mostly as a system buffer.
This arrangement of parts and power flow is known generally as a series-parallel layout, versus the more conventional parallel hybrid, which relies on the cooperative interplay of a running engine and e-motor through a planetary gearset or transmission.
At the heart of the system is what Honda calls a “two-motor” array. Imagine bolting a doughnut-shaped generator to the end of the engine crankshaft. Now slide on a clutch pack, and then a big electric motor. The output of the generator powers the traction motor and battery, which in turn drive the wheels. Effectively there is no transmission.
How do the Honda bits work? Slower than one would hope. I expected the more EV-forward system would bring more stick, but the car struggles to reach 60 mph in 7.6 seconds, according to Car and Driver’s test. That’s a whopping 2.2 seconds slower than the RAV4 Prime and a beat behind the RAV4 Hybrid. After that the CR-V Hybrid really falls on its nose. Traversing a quarter-mile, the CR-V Hybrid howls through the traps in 16.2 seconds at 85 mph with the tach pegged. Imagine attempting to merge onto the 405 with that kind of poke. I’m sure your fellow Californians will be supportive of your choices.
The freeway is the CR-V Hybrid’s least happy place, first because the maximum output of the electric motor is only 181 hp, pitted against a fairly portly 3,763 pounds (Touring package). At “light cruising” speeds and times of moderate demand, the drive unit can connect to the engine directly, I’m told. But even by the most charitable calculation the system max totals only 212 hp.
Second, by virtue of the arrangement, the e-motor has a fixed gear ratio—that is, no torque/speed multiplying gearset between it and the wheels—so it runs out of its comfort zone at higher speeds. The CR-V Hybrid has extra soundproofing and active noise-cancellation pumped through the audio system to tamp down the drone of the engine. It almost works.
The Honda platform’s age doesn’t help. The fifth-generation CR-V, introduced in 2016, offered scant room for batteries. Even though the hybrid version sacrifices 3 cubic feet of cargo space as well as the spare tire to accommodate the battery pack, I suspect it’s actually a little undersized for the system.
Honda could have put a larger battery under the back seat bench, as it is in the RAV4 Hybrid. But that would have impinged on the CR-V’s agreeably vast rear-seating area, large enough to accommodate child-safety seats with ease. The CR-V’s rear seat backs also fold forward to form a flat cargo bed. One wouldn’t want to mess with that.
Quite apart from the hybridizing, the CR-V design is getting a bit long in the tooth. Crucially, in terms of showroom appeal, the central infotainment touch screen is small and limited, with graphics inspired by subway ticket machines.
The CR-V’s exterior reminds us of just how far and fast public taste in SUV styling has moved. It was only in 2020 that the model got a face-lift that attempted to toughen up the look, to make it present less like a minivan. But compared to the chiseled and chamfered RAV4, the CR-V looks like it’s got man boobs.
Point for Toyoda-san.
2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid Touring
Base price: $37,470
Price, as tested: $37,920
Powertrain: Atkinson-cycle 2.0-liter DOHC inline four with variable valve timing (143 hp); two-motor series-parallel hybrid system (212 hp system max); mechanical AWD
Power/torque: 212 hp/232 pound-feet
Length/width/height/wheelbase: 182.1/73.0/66.5/104.7 inches
Curb weight: 3,763 pounds
0-60 mph: 7.6 seconds; ¼-mile, 16.2 seconds at 85 mph (Car and Driver)
EPA fuel economy: 40/35/38 mpg, city/highway/combined
Cargo volume: (rear seat up/down) 33.2 cu ft / 68.7 cu ft
