The new Civic has a cool, sporty look and once you sit inside things don’t disappoint either. There’s greater comfort, visibility and spaciousness and an altogether more premium feel to its predecessor. The user-focused layout features high quality materials and an uncluttered instrument panel. Tactile touchpoints further enhance the experience for drivers and passengers, with spring force in the buttons carefully moderated to emulate the feel of operating high-end home appliances.
There are two petrol from which to choose a 120hp 1.8-litre and 182hp 2-litre wkith both being pretty good on fuel economy thanks to the hybrid set-up. It comes with CVT transmission and those engines are hybrid only with the charge harvested from the brakes so zero-emissions range is rather tiny but useful in traffic nonetheless.
Fuel economy during our time with the car worked out at well over 50 miles to the gallon. There are no numbers from Nissan regarding how far this model can go in zero emission mode but it’s almost irrelevant as the powertrain is always adjusting its behaviour to your driving. The engine will run as little as possible, and in truth you’ll barely notice it when it does kick into life.
While there are more electric vehicles on the market than ever – there were 450 models available in 2021, twice the number available in 2018 – the report highlights the barriers that contribute to the slow adoption of EVs despite high public demand.
Nissan claims the Juke Hybrid can return just over 56mpg fuel economy, while CO2 emissions range from 114 to 115g/km. This compares with the petrol-engined Juke’s 48mpg and 134g/km of CO2. We achieved 49.3 mpg average over a 500-mile test over town, country and motorway roads.
The new powertrain takes the place of the PureTech 130 EAT8 offering and will soon be available on other models in the Peugeot range, including 208, 2008, 308, 308 SW, and new 408. The 3008 and 5008 models are first to benefit from the new Hybrid powertrain with first customer deliveries taking place in Summer 2023.
The Suzuki’s figures are better than rival full hybrids such as the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage, and enough to put the S-Cross in a 2% lower company car tax bracket, being cheaper to buy and with more equipment as standard. At £26,749 for the 2WD Motion, and £31,549 for the AWD Ultra variants, the Suzuki S-Cross Full Hybrid is still a good value-for-money option.
A new short film features TV presenter Grace Webb explaining the Toyota Hybrid driving tips for best fuel economy It’s not just hybrids that will benefit from the first seven tips – these will help to improve any car’s fuel efficiency
The research also found some of the traditional barriers to buying an EV have diminished since last year, notably access to charging points (-12%) and cost of purchase (-21%). However, concerns over the cost of charging saw the biggest year-on-year increase (+12%).
The transition between electric and engine is automatic and very smooth with just a small dashboard indicator telling you when you have switched modes. Suzuki makes no wild claims about the EV range, it’s designed for short distances or when stuck in traffic but it does help with acceleration from the traffic lights and with fuel consumption. We averaged just 1mpg short of Suzuki’s claimed 64.2mpg.
