Honda ditches 1.5 VTEC Turbo for 2025 USDM Civic

2025 Honda Civic debuts in the US market

Back in January, Honda gave us a first look at the facelifted 11th generation Civic, which was shortly followed by the JDM Honda Civic RS which also got the same update, and comes in hatchback form with a 6-speed manual.

Since then, Honda kept mum about other details of the Civic for the 2025 model year. But now it turns out, the updates won’t be skin-deep.

Most of the 2025 Honda Civic for the US market no longer feature a 1.5-liter VTEC Turbo under the hood. Only the Si version with the 6-speed manual is using the 1.5-liter mill. Low variants use the naturally aspirated 2.0-liter K20, but the talk of the town is the new hybrid trims that are available in both hatchback and sedan forms.

Over there, they got the 2.0-liter four-cylinder, Atkinson cycle engine that’s helped along by two synchronous electric motors that run on lithium-ion batteries. As we’ve seen with the local CR-V lineup, the e:HEV produces more power and more torque compared to the 1.5-liter VTEC Turbo.

We had a first look at the Civic e:HEV at the 2022 Bangkok International Motor Show, but now it looks like Honda further developed the system as the 2025 Civic e:HEV produces 200 PS and 315 Nm of torque paired to Honda's dedicated hybrid transmission.

Not only does the e:HEV exert more grunt, but Honda promises better economy than the 1.5-liter VTEC Turbo. Honda also claims the Civic e:HEV for 2025 gets specific suspension tuning to improve ride quality and reduce noise.

As promised by Honda earlier in the year, the 2025 Civic also got some feature enhancements inside. Those include a 12-speaker sound system and a bigger 9-inch touchscreen for the higher variants with Google built-in.

With more markets getting an e:HEV variant of the Civic, let’s see how Honda Cars Philippines will respond in the coming months.