FIRST DRIVE:HONDA CR-Z HYBRID:
BEN OLIVERtest drives Honda's new hybrid
sports coupé, a green competitor aimed at taking on the likes of VW's Scirocco
THIS ISN’T what I’d been led to expect.
Honda bills its new CR-Z coupe as “the world’s first sporty hybrid”, so I’d anticipated something a bit more electric and 21st century; something weird, whooshy, torquey and maybe a bit aloof to drive.
Instead, its all gone a bit Back to the Future. I'm driving something that – cockpit visuals aside – shows no evidence of being a hybrid, but instead feels every bit the 1980s hot hatch; a great exhaust note that promises more than the engine delivers in raw grunt, but with the steering, body control and brakes to make the most of it.
It’s the sort of car we thought the car makers didn’t – or couldn’t – make any more. So is the Honda CR-Z the future, or a throwback to the past?
In engineering terms, it is a small two-door, 2+2 coupe built on a heavily made-over Honda Insight hybrid platform, with 115mm chopped out of the wheelbase to get the length down to just over four metres, and 25mm added to the width between the wheels on the same axle. The new layout ought to improve handling, but it definitely helps the looks; the origami styling is original and entirely modern.
The engine is a 1,497cc, 16-valve petrol unit pinched from the US Honda Jazz, offered for the first time in Europe and fitted with Honda’s IMA integrated motor-assist hybrid system. In this guise, an electric motor sits between the engine and gearbox and helps out when there’s enough charge in the nickel metal-hydride batteries under the boot. The petrol engine alone makes 112bhp at 6,100rpm and 145Nm at 4,800rpm, but total system output from both motors is 122bhp and 174Nm between just 1,000 and 1,500rpm.
Not figures you’d associate with a modern hot hatch, now that Clios come with 200bhp.
Nor will Honda’s IMA system power itself silently and entirely electrically, as a Prius will. And its environmental credentials – a claimed 5.0l/100km and 117g/km – are outstripped by some conventionally powered, eco-tweaked hatches.
Based on the the numbers alone, the CR-Z has to do a lot on the road to justify its sporty hybrid claims.
Only one way to find out. Open the CR-Z and it’s quickly apparent Honda hasn’t worked any packaging miracles under the truncated rear end; the boot is shallow and small at 225 litres and Honda’s blurb tellingly describes how the “2+2 layout gives the option of carrying children in the rear”. It’s only an option: adults aren’t welcome and you suspect that most CR-Zs will have the back seats permanently flipped forward.
The front half of the cockpit is much better. While other carmakers search for ever-more luscious plastics, Honda somehow builds great cabins from pretty average materials; the appeal is in the precision with which they’re assembled, the intelligence with which they’re laid out and the engineering quality behind them. The CR-Z is no exception.
Big low, winged sports chairs could have more under-thigh. For a small, sporty car there’s masses of storage. There’s no conventional central console; instead the air-con and driving-mode controls are grouped in two pods to either side of the main instrument binnacle and just behind your hands as they rest on the wheel. The layout is focused, fresh and intuitive.
That instrument binnacle leaves no doubt that this is a hybrid and comes with the full – and frankly confusing – panoply of eco-driving indicators we’ve come to expect of the breed.
The ring around the rev counter glows in different colours according to driving mode and how “responsibly” you’re driving. There are gauges for current and average consumption, another to tell if the motor is charging or assisting; tiny plants either grow and flower or wither and die, according to your driving style; and laurel wreathes to be won if you finish your journey having driven “well”.
There’s also a change-up indicator, because this hybrid comes with – for the first time – a six-speed manual gearbox. So you hook first and drive off. Other than the mad binnacle, the CR-Z’s stop-start system is the only appreciable difference to an entirely conventional drivetrain, although there are plenty of conventional cars that also offer stop-start and make a better job of it (this system occasionally cuts out too early or cuts back too slowly).
The CR-Z offers three driving modes, selected with switches on the pods behind the wheel. Eco neuters the engine in the interests of economy but leaves it with more than enough urge for city driving. Normal is, well, normal, and sport sharpens the throttle response, primes the hybrid system to assist more and adds weight to the steering.
Around town and on motorways the CR-Z feels fine in any of the three modes. The ride is surprisingly good for a sporty car with Insight underpinnings; the bespoke springs and dampers produce some surface-sensitivity and a stiff-ish response to bigger intrusions, but nothing too harsh given the car’s sporting intent.
The real surprise comes in sport mode on a twisty road. As you run the engine out to the redline, the noise is great, but not matched by much forward progress; Honda claims an uninspiring 10.2 seconds to 100km/h. There also isn’t the low-end torque you’d hope for from an electrically assisted drivetrain. So rather than being the expected party piece, the drivetrain is a little underwhelming.
The revelation is in the handling. The sport button sharpens the steering response noticeably and the gearing is already quick at 2.5 turns between locks.
This – combined with terrific primary body control and traction, brakes that are almost over-sharp and diminutive dimensions perfect for Irish roads – means the CR-Z goads you to maintain all the momentum the engine can summon, and probably more than is good for the planet or your licence.
The CR-Z is exactly the kind of oddball, flawed, contradictory car Japan occasionally produces; an impractical hybrid that is out-eco’d by “normal” cars, yet out-handles most of them too.
Many won’t see the point, but a handful will buy it for the looks, or the handling, or even the hybrid badge – and love it. Long may Honda continue to boldly build cars for that 1 per cent.
Factfile
Engine:1,497cc 16v hybrid four-cylinder petrol engine with six-speed manual, front-wheel drive, 124PS @ 6,100rpm, 174Nm @ 1,000-1,500rpm;
0-100km/h:10.1secs;
Top speed:200km/h; Boot: 225 litres; Combined fuel consumption: 5.0 l/100km; CO2: 117g/km;
Motor tax:band A (€104);
Price:€25,000 to €30,000 (two specifications likely to be offered in Ireland);
In Ireland:late June