Should I buy a 2025 Honda CR-V hybrid?

The Honda CR-V is the brand’s best-selling model, which, as a mid-sized SUV, should not be much of a surprise. 

However, there are some new additions to the family car that buyers may want to sit up and take notice of in 2025.

For the next six months, I’ve welcomed the Honda CR-V hybrid – the top-spec known as the e:HEV RS – into my garage to put its hybrid credentials to the test, finding out how well it performs in the real world of school runs, day trips and family holidays.

I’m also keen to find out how easy it is to get the Honda CR-V hybrid serviced, with its low $199 service cost being one of the lowest out there.

So, what is the Honda CR-V hybrid, and is it the right car for your family? Here’s an introduction.

Honda has three SUVs – the small HR-V, the ZR-V, which is mid-sized but sporty, and the CR-V, which is the largest.

All three have their strengths, but here we’re testing the CR-V e:HEV RS, which is the top-spec hybrid medium SUV.

This long-term test car is the e:HEV RS, which is the only hybrid variant, and that costs from $59,900 before on-roads.

It’s worth noting that these prices are non-negotiable as Honda sets nationwide pricing through its agency model system, but on the flip side there are no optional extras to rack up the bill, including additional paint choices.

As the top-spec CR-V, which gets the marque’s sporty RS badge for the first time, the e:HEV RS gets everything Honda has to offer, such as a 9.0-inch infotainment screen with wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto, a wireless smartphone charger, one USB-A and three USB-C ports, a hands-free power tailgate with walk-away close, and satellite navigation.

It also gets things like a panoramic sunroof, rear privacy glass, two-position driver’s seat memory, a 12-speaker Bose sound system with subwoofer, and an upgraded “i-Dual plus Tri Zone" climate-control system.

The RS styling also adds adaptive LED headlights, body-coloured wheel arches and lower body trim, black-pack shark-fin antenna, door mirrors, and tailgate spoiler, as well as black interior headlining, and red contrast stitching on the seats, steering wheel, and gear selector.

Importantly for owners, purchasing a CR-V comes with five years' complimentary access to the Honda Connect app, which allows remote connection via a paired smartphone to features such as remote lock and unlock, remote engine start, vehicle alarm alerts, vehicle condition updates, and allows the car to contact emergency services in the event of a collision.

The RS’s cabin is nicely appointed – the black leather, alloy sports pedals and hairline metal trim finish are stylish and simple, but it’s also not anything you wouldn’t find in another mid to high medium SUV, meeting the bar rather than raising it.

The infotainment screen also feels a touch small for 2025, and its display is a tad unexciting, but in its favour is that it works really well, it’s clean and clear, it’s responsive, and it’s within easy reach of the driver.

The one exception to this is that if you don’t click ‘OK’ to say you agree to the driver attention warning, then the screen will just go to sleep and you manually have to wake it up. Not a big deal, but it seems like an unnecessary additional step just to be able to see the screen.

One of the best things about the CR-V is how spacious it is inside, and even though the CR-V hybrid is a little smaller due to the need to accommodate the battery, it’s still more than enough for a family of four and it’s one of the larger medium SUVs – similar in size to the Mitsubishi Outlander or Nissan X-Trail.

Petrol models come with 589 litres of boot space, reduced to 471L in seven-seat models or 581L in the hybrid RS. We managed to fit five people’s worth of kit in the boot and rear footwells for a two-night stay away in Victoria’s Goldfields, as well as a pram and all the other necessary accoutrements for our now two-year-old. We had to take out the luggage screen to do so, but it fit.

On regular trips, the CR-V offers plenty of space in the front row too, with a deep centre console bin, and two adjustable cupholders as well as decent room in the doors too.

The CR-V has three top-tether points and two ISOFIX anchors for child seats, meaning it's theoretically possible to accommodate three child seats across the back row, and the CR-V also benefits from a flat floor in the back seat, improving toe room for rear occupants. 

The second row also sits higher than the front, offering stadium-style seating, but not in such a way that it feels like you’re riding in a bus.

However, when trying to fit two child seats on the outboard seats and an adult in the middle, I’ve found it more than a little squishy – having to well and truly wedge myself between the two child seats, which proved quite uncomfortable on longer journeys and isn’t something I’d recommend unless necessary.

Also worth mentioning is that the seatbelt for the middle rear seat in the CR-V is roof-mounted, which naturally goes to cut across the front of the left-hand-side child’s seat and it would be better placed lower down.

The Honda CR-V range has a choice of either petrol or petrol-hybrid powertrains. 

The top-grade e:HEV RS I have here uses a naturally aspirated 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol hybrid engine, which acts as a generator for a small battery to power two electric motors.

Power is sent effortlessly to the front wheels only through an electronic continuously variable transmission (eCVT), making for outputs of 135kW/335Nm. 

There’s no noticeable delay here, and though the CR-V hybrid makes a bit of noise under heavy acceleration, it’s all bark and no bite because the delivery is instant and smooth, seamlessly handing off between petrol and electric. There’s a small amount of wind and road noise at higher speeds, but nothing to write home about.

The CR-V hybrid uses a closed-loop hybrid system, not a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) like in the Mitsubishi Outlander or Mazda CX-60, and has no dedicated EV mode.

The CR-V hybrid is great to drive. The ride is cushiony and soft without feeling willowy. It is only unsettled over the roughest surfaces – and even then, the impact is felt more in the back than in the front. While the seating position is relatively high, it’s not unnatural and the seats themselves are very comfortable even on longer journeys.

The steering, too, is well weighted and direct, giving you confidence to put the car where you need it, when you need it.

One of my favourite things about the CR-V, though, is the openness of it. The windows are enormous all round, which offers so much visibility and light, and is only improved by the massive panoramic sunroof. 

The one letdown here is that even though Honda claims the rear windows are tinted, the tint is incredibly light and my daughter often complains of the sun being in her eyes. For a $60K car, having to pay for an additional tint, wrap it in a window sock or buy snap shades doesn’t feel like good value for money.

The Honda CR-V hybrid has a healthy list of safety equipment as standard, including things like forward collision warning, lane-departure warning, adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow, tyre pressure monitoring, front and rear parking sensors, a reverse parking camera and 11 airbags.

In practice, the technology works just fine, and unlike many vehicles out there now, it is not overwhelming the driver with a million bings and bongs every five seconds. 

However, sometimes I’ve felt the interjection of features such as the forward collision warning is a little delayed, as I have expected it to cut in earlier than it did, and the little flashing symbol of a car crash with an exclamation mark on the digital instrument cluster is possibly not dramatic enough.

Notable for the CR-V is that it has a four-star ANCAP result and not a five-star one. While in these modern times almost everything has five stars, it’s probably important to say that having less than five doesn’t make the Honda unsafe.

In the Euro NCAP test, which was carried over for Australia, the CR-V achieved an 88 per cent score for both adult and child occupant protection, and a 76 per cent score for vulnerable road users.

Where it fell down was that it only got a 68 per cent result for its safety-assist technology, with the pass mark set at 70 per cent.

According to ANCAP, CR-Vs sold in Australia and New Zealand differ from European equivalents because the former features an optional Honda Sensing 360 safety suite in higher grades that could have pushed it over the line to five stars.

On paper, the CR-V hybrid claims to use 5.5 litres per 100 kilometres, compared to between 7.1L and 7.7L/100km for the petrol depending on whether you go for FWD or AWD.

So far, I have found the best I can get from the hybrid is around 5.3L/100km, but there’s a lot to say about how well the hybrid powertrain works, when it works best, and what fuel economy you can expect depending on your driving habits, which I will bring you in the next update.

In my first couple of months with the CR-V hybrid, I can’t say I’ve found many disadvantages – it’s a solid family car with lots of space, nice features like a powered tailgate, powered seat adjusters, and heated front seats for cold winter mornings.

There’s a but coming, though.

Unfortunately, the hybrid powertrain is only available on the top-spec variant, and it is also missing out on some features you typically find in top-of-the-line grades in its rivals, such as AWD and the option of seven seats. 

You can have both of these things on other variants lower down the range, but not in the hybrid. 

It also misses out on things like a full-size spare tyre (it only comes with a tyre repair kit in this hybrid variant), while a 360-camera and head-up display aren't available on any CR-V grade.

That’s a disappointment for $60K when I’m also testing an MG ZS Essence that does have a 360-degree camera (of decent quality too) for less than $30K.

The Honda CR-V hybrid comes with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, which is pretty standard but good nonetheless.

The real bonus in ownership comes from Honda’s incredibly affordable servicing, which is capped at $199 per visit for the first five years, with intervals set every 12 months or 10,000km.

Over the first five years, you'll pay a total of $995 in scheduled servicing costs, regardless of whether you opt for a hybrid or full-petrol model.

I’ll cover this in much more detail in a future update, so stay tuned!

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

Read more about Kathryn Fisk