Honda Civic gets fourth Car of the Year award in North America

The Honda Civic has again won the North American Car of the Year title in the awards for 2025. It’s the fourth time the model, now in its 11^th generation, has won the award since 2006. The award this year is specifically for the Civic Hybrid and is actually the second one for the 11^th generation of the model as it was also the North American Car of the Year in 2022.

Another Honda model which has won the same award have been the Accord in 2018, while the Ridgeline won the Truck category in 2006 and 2017.

The Civic is the longest-running Honda automotive nameplate and has been one of the top three best-selling passenger cars in America over the past 52 years. Over 15 million have been sold in North America since 1973 when the first generation was launched.

Along with a few other Japanese models, the Civic that was influential in getting Americans to switch to smaller cars, especially during the energy crises of the 1970s. Furthermore, the CVCC engine, which the Civic was fitted with, embarrassed other automakers at the time as it was the only engine which met the tougher emission standards.

Rather than join the rest of the industry in saying that it was too difficult to make engines meet the new standards, Honda used its engineering skills to develop an engine that did not require unleaded petrol (then not so common) or even a catalytic converter. Its availability in the Civic would certainly have boosted the popularity of the model then.

Two decades later, Honda again showed its engineering prowess with its hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) system, then called Integrated Motor Assist (IMA). Introduced with the Insight in 1999, the IMA system was among the first HEV systems in mass produced models (the other being from Toyota).

With continued development, the original IMA evolved into today’s e:HEV system with two motors. Praised for its power, efficiency and refinement by the editors at WardsAuto, the Honda two-motor hybrid system powering the award-winning Civic Sedan and Hatchback received a ‘Wards 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems’ award last year.

“We are honoured to have leading automotive journalists select the Honda Civic hybrid as the 2025 North American Car of the Year,” said Jessika Laudermilk, Assistant Vice-President of Honda Auto Sales. “Our fun-to-drive hybrid-electric models are a key part of our Honda electrification strategy, and sales of the new Civic hybrid will ultimately represent about 40% of Civic sales [in the USA].”

The Civic is available globally, with and without the e:HEV system. The updated model was recently launched in Malaysia where it is also assembled.

Click here to know more about the Civic and other Honda models in Malaysia.

Honda’s hybrid (e:HEV) technology is 25 years old