![]() Smoother, perkier, and lives up to its premium positioning Honda has also eliminated the battery level gauge, although you can still tap into it through touchscreen menus and the Power Flow screen. The outgoing CR-V Hybrid’s EV mode button, and its theoretical stealth to arrive home and keep the engine at bay, is also gone. Think more obnoxious than inspiring-and it can’t be switched off. It’s a head-scratcher.Īdding to that ICE awareness: Shift the drive mode to Sport, as you would for a curvy road and the sharpest performance, and the engine and those “shifts” are amped-up through cabin speakers with Active Sound Control-an altogether raspy sound that resembles a tuner-car resonator. The change effectively makes the driver more aware of the engine instead of having it rev up and down, somewhat disassociated from acceleration, it’s now pretending to be more connected to it. The engine is, as before, effectively clutched to the wheels only at low-load boulevard or highway-speed cruising. It’s all an illusion though, as accelerating at those rates doesn’t involve any connection to the wheels at all the CR-V’s two-mode configuration continues to function as a parallel-hybrid system in most acceleration situations, with the engine functioning as a generator, charging the battery and delivering electric power to the wheels via a traction motor. When accelerating rapidly, the hybrid system now “shifts” in steps, crisply dropping the revs as if it’s changing gears. If Honda is segueing to EVs here, it’s still humming the tune of internal combustion. ![]() It delivers one with stronger electric motors and a broadened electric range-including new towing ability-but ultimately with a decidedly gasoline-vehicle twist. Honda says that it’s gone for a more electric driving experience for the CR-V this time. ![]() Even from a drivability and usability standpoint, for those who can’t yet shift to plug-in vehicles, It’s hard to imagine getting any CR-V that isn’t a hybrid. But I’m convinced that it’s now the best CR-V in nearly every respect and that Honda will easily sell half or more of its CR-Vs as hybrids. Honda sees the 2023 CR-V Hybrid as its on-ramp to electric vehicles for the U.S., and it’s gone so far as to say that it sees a good many CR-V Hybrid drivers making a leap to its upcoming fully electric Honda Prologue EV in a couple of years.Īfter spending most of a day driving this latest and greatest CR-V Hybrid this past week, I’m not entirely convinced this most excellent Honda makes clear connections to electric.
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