Honda CR-V PHEV review: Bigger, better, and more refined for 2024

The Honda CR-V has been with us for nearly 40 years now and it has grown up a bit over those years. Now in its sixth generation it is a very different thing now than it was when we first saw it, but has possibly gained more in popularity than size.

Originally named by Honda as a ‘Comfortable Runaround Vehicle’ – although the company later attached itself to the ‘Compact Recreational Vehicle’ label attached to it by a British car magazine – and the first one was based on the same platform as the Civic hatchback.

It was made as a response to Toyota’s hugely successful RAV4 project and both these cars are largely responsible with inventing what we now describe as an SUV, so these two cars spawned a whole new automotive segment which has been aped by pretty much every other car maker on the planet.

In other words, it was all the fault of the Japanese – or so it seems. But we cannot, in fact, point the finger far eastwards when apportioning blame, as it actually lies with the Russians.

Those Russkis – so long the bad boys in the eyes of us ‘civilised’ westerners – came up with the Lada Niva back in 1977 and it is widely considered to be the first ever crossover car, combining as it did a hatchback passenger car design with added off-road 4x4 capabilities.

It was this that sparked the SUV trend and both Toyota and Honda wisely picked up on it and trailblazed it from there. The CR-V has become Honda’s bestselling car worldwide and is among the top-selling SUVs globally.

Backed by a loyal cabal of fans – no more so here in Ireland where if you own one you are smugly regarded by fellow owners as being a very smart punter – the CR-V has gone from strength on the back of its excellent build quality, bombproof reliability, comfort and practicality.

In terms of Honda’s own model line-up, the CR-V preceded the HR-V and, latterly, the ZR-V which we favourably tested in these columns only in recent weeks. As the CR-V grew up and the HR-V got a little smaller (as we will find out early in the new year) the ZR-V was introduced to fill the gap.

So, Honda now has three very definable SUVs to sell and it is hard not to predict that each of them will sell well – here and everywhere else – as all of them have an obvious reach into a definite market segment.

But the CR-V is the daddy and the new one, which was introduced globally late last year, will add more customers to its fanbase because it is bigger and better than ever before. Of course, it is very important for Honda to get this one right, not least because it is a serious global seller and therefore has to appeal to a broad spectrum of punters.

The new one is obviously bigger than the old one and while it is no taller, it is 10mm wider (on both the interior and exterior dimensions), it is 80mm longer overall and 40mm of that growth is seen in a 40mm stretch in the wheelbase.

Despite the increase in size, this is still firmly a five-seater and the Advance Sport specification we tested also comes with a two-litre PHEV powertrain, which will broaden its appeal no end if the current customer demand for hybrids rather than pure electrics holds up.

Now Honda has had something of a chequered career when it comes these things – a bit like everyone else, really. Their electrics have been ok – although the fantastic Honda e was a stand-out classic – but their PHEVs have been a little touch and go.

The last one was not great – very much of the screechy variety we saw from a lot of early hybrids, especially those from Toyota – but Honda is very much an engineering concern and it was only to be expected that it would get better at this hybrid lark. It has.

In fact, what they’ve come up with is one of the smoothest and best behaved we’ve yet seen. This system is closely based on the e:HEV design featured on the new Civic which has a petrol engine and two electric motors, one of which is primarily a generator and one which drives the wheels at lower speeds.

This one is quite similar, but utilises just one electric motor and a 17.7 kWh battery and it only drives the front wheels. It is similar to the last generation version, but it is hugely more refined and a lot less shouty than the previous iteration.

It also gives over 80km of electric-only driving and that makes it one of the better PHEVs out there simply because of that range; it gives owners a much better chance of doing a lot of their urbanite thing on electricity only, while also providing the economy we have now come to expect when the engine has to be deployed on longer trips.

Of course – and as is usual for PHEVs – the stated economy is preposterous at 0.8 l/100km (353.1 mpg) and you’ll probably buy a winning lottery ticket quicker than you’ll achieve that, but a reasonable expectation is somewhere in the region of 4.9 l/100km (56.1 mpg) which is pretty decent.

All told there’s 181 bhp on tap here and while the CR-V is not a speedster (0-100 km/h takes 9.4 seconds and top speed is 187 km/h, but it is swift enough when you need it to be and even without the benefit of all-wheel-drive, it handles well, corners solidly and is very smooth of ride.

There are a few annoying things – the now mandated speed warning has to be turned off every time you start it up and so too the lane changing warning.

Spec levels are high (heated rear seats keep the passengers toasty), with stuff like the all-round camera, auto lights, 8-way powered driver’s seat and panoramic roof all adding nicely to the actual driving experience.

While the exterior design is not going to win many awards, the interior is a paragon of design excellence and the simplicity of the controls – especially the infotainment system – is an object lesson in how to do it properly. That there is a myriad of switchgear on offer here is a welcome relief from what you get in a majority of cars these days.

With its spaciousness and practicality, you’ve got a pretty compelling package here and stir in a dollop of nailed-on reliability and you get why it is that the CR-V has such a fanbase.

Sure, it might be a bit more expensive than some rivals, but it does have a lot to offer from a variety of perspectives. A fine piece of kit.

* Thanks to Dermot O’Sullivan at Kevin O’Leary Honda for his assistance with this one.