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Awards 2008 - Green Car: Honda Civic Hybrid
Date: 22 January 2008
Honda's third win this year comes in the new BusinessCar Awards category of Green Car of the Year thanks to the Civic Hybrid.
The Civic Hybrid is very much a stand-alone model even though there's no indication you're driving anything different from a standard petrol model, save the small dashboard readout that shows whether the battery is either charging or being used to give a 20PS boost to the engine.
It's easy to drive around town, thanks to the light steering and good ride quality, and the 100% discount on London's congestion charge is a welcome financial benefit. But the best news of all for company car drivers is the 12% BIK banding - six bands better than even the cleanest diesels. While diesel has a three-band penalty enforced by the Government, the Civic, like the Toyota Prius, gets a 2% discount for being a hybrid, plus another 1% off because it's a hybrid below 120g/km CO2 emissions. The ownership proposition is further helped by a low, group seven insurance and a claimed 61.4mpg.
Honda has succeeded in making hybrid cars a compromise-free alternative to mainstream hatchbacks.
