Honda will announce that it’s no longer going to offer a diesel engine in the CR-V SUV when it shows off a new hybrid version at the Frankfurt motor show. According to a source in Honda’s Irish importer, it has not yet been definitively confirmed that the diesel model will be pulled from the Irish market, but the overall plan for Europe is to cease offering a diesel.
Instead, Honda will bring the new CR-V to the market next year (looking all but identical to the motor show version seen in these photos) with a 1.5-litre turbo petrol four-cylinder VTEC engine, and a very high-tech new hybrid model.
The show car for Frankfurt, dubbed CR-V Hybrid Prototype, uses a cutting-edge new hybrid system that does away with a conventional gearbox. Instead, the Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive (i-MMD) system uses a combination of a 2.0-litre petrol engine, running on the fuel-saving Atkinson combustion cycle, mated to a single fixed-gear transmission that drives the wheels. How does it do without a gearbox? Because the CR-V now uses its electric motor as the gearbox. It can run in EV Drive and Hybrid Drive modes, with the engine solely acting as a generator to recharge the battery and turn the electric motor, which allows for some zero-emissions driving, and very low emissions at other times (Honda hasn’t yet issued claimed figures for either mode). The third mode, Engine Drive, allows the engine to power the wheels directly, for increased acceleration and, when more power is needed, with a boost from the electric motor.
There’s no need for the driver to select a specific mode - the system juggles its various components for best effect depending on the driving style. “In most urban driving situations, the vehicle will move between Hybrid Drive and EV Drive for optimum efficiency. Engine Drive is engaged as needed for brisk acceleration and for efficient highway driving” said Honda, in a statement.
The CR-V’s core structure remains the same, but Honda has revised the front and rear styling to bring it more into line with the smaller HR-V, and has thinned down the windscreen pillars a little, for reasons both aesthetic and vision.
While we wait for confirmation as to whether or not a diesel model will be retained for the Irish market (and talks have been had as to making just such a special case for Ireland) it seems that, in Europe at least, the CR-V is the first major model range to ditch diesel altogether.
