The 2025 Honda Civic Sport Touring Hybrid Out-Germans the Germans

The badging on the trunk of this 2025 Honda Civic says you can have it all. Sport. Touring. Hybrid. If only it mulched and bagged, this car would be the ultimate all-in-one Honda.

Stringing those three words together might seem far-fetched—almost contradictory—but here it’s a rare instance of truth in automotive advertising. Drive it quickly or far or parsimoniously, it doesn’t matter; the 2025 Honda Civic Sport Touring Hybrid is in its element. The label on Honda’s three-box compact car actually describes what’s inside. Philosophically, at least.

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The Hybrid That Thinks It’s an EV

Explaining what’s inside the engine bay takes a lot more than three words. Like the Accord and CR-V hybrids, the Civic leads with the electric half of its powertrain. Around town, it drives the front wheels through a 181-hp permanent-magnet motor that draws power from either a 1.1-kWh lithium-ion battery pack or a generator spun by the four-cylinder engine. At higher speeds or with your foot to the floor, the gas engine helps turn the wheels through a single-speed transmission, boosting peak output to 200 horses.

That’s the long way of saying the Civic Hybrid drives more like an EV than a gas car. It shoots off gracefully and effortlessly then matches the movement of your right foot with immediate action. Around 30 mph, where a gas car shifts into second gear and loses steam, the Civic rides an uninterrupted wave of torque. If you’re paying attention, you might notice the engine humming quietly in the distance with luxury-car refinement. With the radio on, you probably won’t.

Sport mode causes the engine revs to rise and fall to simulate the shifts of a multispeed transmission that’s not actually there. It’s a nice idea but hardly convincing because there’s no accompanying torque interruption. We’d love to see Honda take a cue from the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N and code a blip into the power delivery so that your body feels what your ears hear.

More than that, we wish Honda would lean harder into the EV angle by embracing one-pedal driving. The steering wheel paddles toggle through four levels of lift-throttle regenerative braking, yet even the most aggressive setting doesn’t slow the car quick enough to match the ebb and flow of traffic. Frustratingly, the car also reverts to the lowest level after just a few seconds of acceleration.

But those are mere quibbles about a powertrain that allows you to have your gas and burn it, too. The Sport Touring Hybrid is rated for 50 mpg on the EPA’s city cycle and will embarrass the Civic Si in a drag race. While we couldn’t match the 49-mpg combined rating or even the 47-mpg highway rating, we can’t be mad about an easy 45 mpg in the real world. Especially because this car has a sense of purpose beyond sipping the least amount of fuel possible.

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It’s Not About the Numbers

At the test track, the Sport Touring Hybrid blew past our expectations when it charged to 60 mph in 6.1 seconds, which puts it 0.7 second ahead of the other sporty Civic, the 205-hp Si. Of the more than 60 Civics Motortrend has tested, only the Type R and the 2012–2015 ninth-generation Si have been quicker.

Of course, it takes more than swift acceleration to stake a claim on the word “Sport.” The McNugget at the bottom of the french fry carton is that this Civic steers, brakes, and rides with a profound sense of harmony. Like a Volkswagen GTI or BMW’s most revered 3 Series of the late ’90s and early 2000s, the driver’s controls feel as if they were tuned by a single individual who shares our good taste for what makes a great-driving car.

The steering telegraphs a strong sense of on-center and available grip with a just-right heft that builds naturally as cornering forces rise. The springs and dampers keep firm control over body movements without ever feeling stiff. The brake pedal bites from the very top of its travel—gently at first then progressively building into a hard chomp. If a hybrid with better brake feel exists, we haven’t driven it.

This isn’t the type of excellence you measure at the proving ground. Eighteen-inch Continental ProContact RX all-season tires limit the Sport Touring Hybrid’s performance to an unremarkable 120-foot stop from 60 mph and 0.83 g of cornering grip. Pushed to a 27.3-second lap around our figure-eight circuit, the Civic only understeers, stubbornly resisting our attempts to make it rotate under trail braking. That makes sense given how most customers will drive, but the miracle of modern stability control allows SUVs twice as heavy and a foot taller to feel more neutral at the limit. It’s a disappointment in this sensible economy car only because the steering, brakes, and body control are so engaging.

We nevertheless love the Civic Sport Touring Hybrid because we don’t drive at the limit on public roads. Below the threshold where the tires start to holler, the Civic is so, so good. It’ll find a flow state in city traffic, on a road trip, or over a mountain pass.

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Good Inside

The experience is made even better by a cabin that would still impress at $10,000 more than the Sport Touring Hybrid’s $32,945 starting price. The seats, steering wheel, and shift knob are trimmed in real leather, and the strip of honeycomb mesh running from door to door gives the Civic an uncommon sense of upscale style for a compact car. We love the simple, functional center console, the three-knob climate control array, and that there’s substance beyond the superficial. The seats are comfortable for hours at a time, and there’s a convincing sense of build quality in the way everything fits together.

New for 2025, the infotainment system uses Google Maps for navigation and Google Assistant for voice commands, effectively flattening the learning curve if you’ve touched a cell phone in the past decade. GM, Ford, Volvo, and Polestar have taken a similar approach, which we generally like. Between the native functions, the downloadable Google Play apps, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the Civic’s infotainment makes it easy to get directions, stream music, makes calls, or send voice texts. The only problem is Honda’s user interface and the integration of the screen in the dash make the system look and feel like last-generation tech when it isn’t.

The conservative nature of the Civic makes the Sport Touring Hybrid a fantastic alternative for anyone looking for a more conventional and more practical alternative to our 2024 Car of the Year, the Toyota Prius. Next to the Prius’ back seat, the Civic’s second row is positively limolike, with room for a pair of child seats or teens. We just wish there were vents back there to keep the kids cool. It’s a small detail, but one that will drive some families into a more expensive, less efficient crossover, unfortunately.

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Making the Choice For You

Don’t mistake our nitpicking for more meaningful criticism. A great car is held to higher expectations in the same way the most competent employees get more work than everyone else. Ignoring the (very expensive) Type R, the Sport Touring Hybrid is the best Civic in a decade or more.

Unlike the Civic hybrids of the past and the 2019–2022 Insight, which was essentially a gas-electric Civic in all but name, this latest version isn’t a separate model from the rest of the lineup. Instead, it’s positioned as the upgraded engine you get with higher trims. The LX and Sport versions still drive the wheels using a 150-hp four-cylinder, but if you want heated seats, dual-zone climate control, or a sunroof, you’ll end up with a refined, strong, and fuel-efficient hybrid as a happy side effect.

We think of the excellent driving dynamics in a similar way. Most buyers will be sold on the Honda Civic Sport Touring Hybrid’s great fuel economy, fair pricing, and comfortable, functional cabin. That they also end up with an excellent-driving car is why so many Civic owners become fanatical acolytes for the brand.

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