Honda HR-V: Calm before the storm

With the mergers and mega deals, along comes a revision to Honda’s long-running hybrid. As the bigger boys look intent on swallowing the market, Sean O’Grady sees if this old Japanese favourite can give the company some purchase going into the new year

The Honda HR-V: a hybrid SUV with a coupe-style design (Honda)

Lots of media speculation, I notice, about a tie-up, maybe even a merger between Honda and Nissan, two of the smaller Japan-based manufacturers. It sort of makes sense, but also doesn’t. The pair are slightly marooned in a world of rapid mergers and mega-brand groups, such as the sprawling Stellantis (Vauxhall, Jeep, Chrysler, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Opel, Citroen, Peugeot and more) and where even the biggest players have to cooperate and share technology to keep up, with the Chinese lead in electric cars; VW teaming with Ford, for example. Toyota seems to have gobbled up all or part of minor but innovative outfits, such as Suzuki and Subaru. Many also have Chinese brands or owners as partners – Great Wall Motor and BMW, Volvo and Geely. As in previous decades, but now driven by the costs of retooling for the transition to electrics, every car company needs friends and allies.

Indeed, Nissan had a long-running but not entirely harmonious alliance with Renault called, imaginatively enough, “Alliance”, and both made, albeit largely independently, huge steps forward in electric vehicles. But while Renault is pressing on at pace, Nissan seems to have gone from a market leader when it was making the Nissan Leaf, to a bit of a laggard now. Leaf production is finished for now, and only the seldom-seen upmarket Ariya offers the Nissan customer “proper” electric propulsion.

The SUV is a good representation of the company’s independent brand (Honda)

Then there’s Honda, fiercely independent and highly successful in tough markets such as the US for decades. Its only substantial foreign partnership was with Rover Group, which evolved into more of a licensing deal and ended in tears when Rover’s owners sold it to BMW. For a tantalisingly short time, Honda offered British customers one small gem of an electric car, the e, but that’s now disappeared – basically too expensive and too exquisite for British tastes (and an instant future classic). Now, as with Nissan, Honda only has one zero-emissions vehicle in the range, the oddly-named e:Ny1, a battery-electric version of the HR-V. Given the hefty penalties that the government charges companies for not selling the requisite quota of electric cars, both Honda and Nissan must be coining it elsewhere.

THE SPEC

Honda HR-V Advance Style Plus

Price: £38,645 (as tested; range from £30,395)

Engine capacity: 1.5l petrol, 4-cyl, 1sp- auto + 2 electric motors

Power (PS): 107 + 96 hybrid electric

Top speed (mph): 105

0-60 (seconds): 10.7

Fuel economy (mpg): 43.6

CO2 emissions (WLTP, g/km): 122

Funnily enough, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in the company of Honda’s and Nissan’s “alternatives” to a conventional electric car. I’ve reviewed both before, and they’ve been given mild revisions in recent times, so I needn’t labour the points again. Suffice it to say that, for the moment, the Nissan Qashqai e-power is the most extraordinary combination of internal combustion engine and electric vehicle technology. Like a more ambitious version of a petrol-supplemented EV “range extender”, this version of the Qashqai uses petrol in its internal combustion engine to generate electric power, and it is this that drives the wheels via an automatic transmission. It thus gives the motorist a quite genuine electric car experience – plenty of power, smooth and quiet running – but without the anxiety that you might run out of battery power because it’s fossil-fuelled. Otherwise, it’s the usual highly competent and much-loved Qashqai package, a ubiquitous default in British family motoring in the way the Ford Cortina once was. The drawback is the essentially eccentric business of inserting an intermediate stage into the process of turning petrol into motive power. Still, I suspect many customers neither know nor care.

The long and winding road: the HR-V can struggle a little under hard acceleration (Honda)

Which brings me to the more “normal” Honda HR-V, a conventional, albeit highly intelligent hybrid of the kind we’ve become very familiar with. Like the Qashqai, the HR-V is a long-running sub-brand, also dating back to the 1990s, although a much rarer sight on the road. There’s not even a plug-in variant, but an all-electric version of this car does exist – the aforementioned e:Ny1. So at least you have the choice, and both are blessed with wonderfully versatile packaging, just like the Honda Jazz they’re derived from. I was especially impressed by the cantilevered rear bench that smoothly folds with one touch to produce a completely flat load bay. Of the pair, the hybrid HR-V feels the more old-fashioned because, even with some very sophisticated software, under hard acceleration it will whinge and whine before getting a move on. Decidedly frustrating, and, for what it’s worth, a far less satisfactory style of drive to the e-power Qashqai. The HR-V has received some almost imperceptible styling improvements inside and out, and a new luxury trim level, “Advanced Style”, but otherwise, like the Qashqai it’s the same impressive offering.

The future, though, is more challenging, but if both brands can collaborate and pool their formidable strengths, and suppress traditional rivalries, then they could continue to offer something different in the automotive eco-system. Nissan certainly has some expertise in electric vehicle technology, while Honda has the greater reputation for innovation and quality. They don’t have much of a future as independent companies, and sooner or later the Chinese giants will eat them for breakfast – and may do so anyway. To have that chance of shaping their own destiny, Honda and Nissan have to take what both of them do best, share platforms and technology, and retain their own distinctive product lines and the character of their models. The Qashqai e-power and the HR-V hybrid display proudly individual thinking – and that’s an excellent attribute. Between them, they could make the finest electric cars in the world, and the automotive world would be a much poorer place without Nissan and Honda. Good luck to them.