Next-Gen Honda Civic Leaks Way Before Its Official Debut
Sure, it’s toned down from the last generation, but that’s not really a bad thing.
We already knew that the 2022 Honda Civic hatchback and sedan would be evolutions rather than redesigns after renders of the cars' patents showed less radical, more Accord-esque lines. Although the Type R looks set to keep its meaner shape with possible hybrid power, the Japanese brand's mainstays seem a little more sedate with leaked images of what could be the Chinese market model looking in-line with those renders.
In pictures dug out by Civic11Forum.com, the car's hood is markedly elongated compared to the outgoing model and although there's no full-frontal view, the headlights look a little less aggressive. The sharp sculpting over the edges of the hood seems to have been replaced with a more gentle line, the car appearing calmed down overall from the almost spiky direction it had been heading in for a few years, like growing out your fringe in lockdown.
At the rear, the story is the same; the c-shaped taillights that made the 10th-generation Civic a little bit flashier have been ditched for its 11th outing in favor of a more purely sensible back-end. Although the rear doesn't look quite as diminished as you might have feared from the renders, it is a little bit tamer than the direction Honda had seemed to be heading in—although with none of Honda's more modern, "e" city car style.
For comparison's sake, here's the 2022 Civic Prototype and its, erm, extremely similar design:
Honda's only promise so far on the engine front is better fuel efficiency and more power, but we can safely assume that four-cylinder engines will carry on as faithful to the line, including a turbocharged 1.5-liter.
Although the model leaked is believed to be for the Chinese market, it's a similarly safe assumption that the U.S. edition won't go too wildly off-course from this as it seems to so closely resemble the patents filed. We're expecting the production-ready 2022 Civic to be revealed this spring, so anticipate more details...whenever that comes.
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