New Honda HR-V debuts with clean styling and hybrid power

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[April 2021 update: New Honda HR-V powertrain details revealed]

Honda has revealed the 3rd generation HR-V with the company’s latest e:HEV hybrid powertrain. It’ll go on sale in Europe in late 2021 and in Japan in April 2021. In Japan, the HR-V is sold as ‘Vezel’.

The new HR-V sports a super clean design with no unnecessary lines, creases and fake intakes/outlets; the front grille looks proportionate too. From certain angles, especially the three-quarter angles and the rear fascia, the HR-V might remind you of the new Harrier/Venza; it’s not a copy but somehow the aforementioned Toyota pops up in my head. Adding to the clean looks are the hidden door handles for the rear doors.

Depending on the trim, features for the Japanese market include full LED headlights, LED fog lights, 16-inch aluminum wheels, and a panoramic glass roof. As you can see in the second photo, there are a bunch of accessories too, including a front bumper spoiler, side skirts, mirror caps, rear bumper inserts, and a tailgate spoiler.

The cabin has a clean design too, especially the dashboard, and my personal favorite elements are those air flow adjustment knobs at either end of the dashboard right next to the “breeze outlets”; there’s something “cool” about it, literally and figuratively. Besides the usual touchscreen, connectivity, digital driver display and those sort of things, other features include heated front seats, 60:40 split rear seats with dive-down mechanism, electrostatic touch LED room lamps, and Honda Sensing suite of active safety and driver assistance systems.

In Japan, the Vezel will be available in both FWD and AWD variants, with more details expected closer to the launch date. Being a hybrid, it’ll offer 3 modes: EV, Hybrid and an Engine mode; the first two are self-explanatory, while the Engine mode is apparently for high-speed cruising. There are further 3 modes for acceleration: Normal, Sport and ECON. There are 4 steps of deceleration adjustment too.