WATCH out Toyota! Honda is challenging the Prius with a new Civic Hybrid that’s better in every way than its stupefyingly dull predecessor. And it even rights some of the old car’s – as well as the criminally underrated Insight’s – drivetrain wrongs. Today’s car, for instance, can run purely on electric power plus it’s more frugal and efficient. Better still, even a brief drive reveals a Hybrid that a driving enthusiast may enjoy punting around. Since you can’t really say that about the Prius, that’s progress.

Honda EP Civic Hybrid
Released: March 2004
Ended: Feb 2006
Family Tree: CivicHonda deserves success after the 2001 Insight (narrowly) became Australia’s first-ever petrol-electric hybrid vehicle. But that car’s wildly expensive pricing and two-seater configuration guaranteed its failure here. Not so 2004’s Hybrid sedan, which was affordable at $30,000 and offered reasonably benign performance from its 69kW/146Nm 1.3/electric motor combo married to a CVT auto. Sales have been reasonable but this Civic’s dull styling and watered-down hybrid experience – Toyota's Prius wears its innovation on its sleeve to great effect – means it will soon slide into oblivion.
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