Honda’s core sports utility will feature in three variants, topping with a hybrid.

COMPETITION for the country’s most popular mild hybrid car has arrived, but comparison only goes so far.

In releasing pricing and specification of the new CR-V, Honda New Zealand has made clear just one of the three variants incoming will have a petrol-electric drivetrain.

Conceivably, that could make it an alternate to Toyota’s RAV4 hybrid, a big favourite with Kiwis, but not a direct rival, as while Honda’s system could also be described as being self-recharging, it goes in a different direction Toyota in respect to how many wheels are being driven.

Whereas the RAV4 has an on-demand all-wheel-drive, here the Honda in its electric-assisted form is purely front-drive. In some other markets, it will facilitate with ability to drive all four wheels.

The CR-V will nonetheless be vital, as it sits on a new platform with a longer wheelbase, wider tracks, more interior space and updated technology throughout and will serve as a big brother to the ZR-V, which launched in May.

It is also the largest delivery here in the brand’s new, simplified design language, enhanced by a few rugged touches - it’s a sports utility vehicle, after all.

A large front grille features a hexagonal mesh pattern and blends into a pair of LED headlamps. The front bumper is clad has plastic body protection, which extends to the wheel arches and side sills, and more chunky body protection at the rear.

The choice starts with a five-seater Sport all-wheel-drive, which features a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder with V-TEC, making 140kW and 240Nm of torque– an engine also used in the range it replaces.

This powerplant is again married to a constantly variable transmission. The entry-level variant is priced at $53,000 before on-road costs.

That drivetrain also shares to a CR-V Sport 7, which as the name suggests has seating for seven. It costs $57k, plus on roads, and has the same specification as the cheapest car. So, leather seats, wireless Apple CarPlay and device charging, 18-inch alloy wheels, as well as Honda’s Sensing and Connect systems. The seven adds a panoramic sunroof.

Above these is the hybrid, packing the same e:HEV-badged system as in the ZR-V and Civic, developing 135kW and 335Nm from a 2.0-litre non-turbo four-cylinder petrol engine, two electric motors fed by a 1.06kWh battery pack, transferring through a simulated CVT.

It mainly drives a generator to provide energy for an electric motor to drive the wheels, but with a lock-up clutch for direct drive at higher speeds.

It’s also highly specified, with a panoramic sunroof, 19-inch alloy wheels but will cost $67,000; so $6110 more than the flagship RAV4 Hybrid, the Adventure.

The hybrid is also in five-seater format, and cannot take a third row, as the batteries and the associated hybrid elements take up the space where that would go.

Will it one day step up to all-wheel-drive, a feature with this drivetrain in its core right-hand-drive export market, the United Kingdom? No-one is yet saying.

The same uncertainty still hangs over the next step, a plug-in hybrid version, with a 17.7kWh battery lending electric only range of around 80km.

It doesn’t gain any extra power, since it uses the same motor as the e:HEV, but obviously has a fuel efficiency gain over the NZ-confirmed stock, which lends 8.2L/100km with the 1.5-litre and 6.4L/100km in e:HEV form. Other interesting aspects with the PHEV is a higher towing rating than the e:HEV and a bigger boot, as with the plug-n the battery is located under the cabin floor instead of between the rear wheels.

At 4694mm long, 1864mm wide and 1691mm tall, and on a 2700mm wheelbase, this is arguably no longer what the letters stand for: A ‘Compact Recreational Vehicle.’

The new model is 59mm longer, 9mm wider and 12mm taller and on a 40mm-longer wheelbase than the old car. The upsize makes it one of the larger cars in the "medium SUV" category, becoming of similar dimension to the Nissan X-Trail, Mitsubishi Outlander and Skoda Kodiaq.

This is the sixth generation of CR-V since the nameplate introduced here in 1996.