I still remember the first time I sat behind the wheel of a Honda Civic IMA Hybrid, and the whole week turned into a genuinely fascinating experience.
Under the bonnet, a 1.3 litre engine works alongside an electric motor that gives real electrical assistance exactly when you need it. Honda’s own i-DSI technology, first seen on the Jazz, forms the backbone of this i-VTEC engine, and a twin-plugged design helps it run smoother than you might expect. The result blends genuine petrol-electric technology with everyday practicality.
Power reaches the road through a continuously variable transmission, known simply as CVT, which plenty of engineers still call the transmission of the future. A small dynamo captures energy under braking, adding useful motive force the instant the car needs a push. This whole automatic system never asks the driver to think twice, since everything starts the moment you turn the ignition key.
The Honda Civic IMA
On my own mixed commute, this Honda Civic IMA Hybrid returned close to 58mpg, though the Government figures for mixed consumption claimed 61.4mpg. A common rail diesel, and even the Ford Focus ECOnetic I drove a few weeks earlier, actually nudged past that figure in real testing. Still, the exceptional economy on offer here holds its own against most similarly priced TDs in its class.
Official sheets list 109g/km of emissions, alongside a kerb weight of 1297kg, both numbers that matter to anyone thinking about environmental concerns. The car never feels parsimonious on the move, and it drives with more confidence than its 1.4-litre size suggests.
Under the bonnet, the layout stays tidy, packed with compact electronics and build quality matching any other Civic saloon on sale today. Honda even offers this across the whole Civic range, with petrol, diesel, and petrol/electric choices sitting side by side thanks to strong powertrain availability.
The VTEC system sharpens valve timing, while an idle stop system and a cylinder idling system cut waste whenever the car sits as a stationary vehicle. A gentle stop/start system shuts the engine down in traffic, which suits city dwellers far more than someone stuck on a long regular commute. Official figures quote 116 g/km and 4.9 l/100km across the combined cycle, numbers that push this car close to a proper frugal car rating.
Honda badged this version the IMA 03, built as a true mainstream petrol-electric car rather than a niche experiment, and it competes head-on with the Toyota Prius on ordinary conventional motoring ground. Everyday touches like class-leading features, genuine refinement, and confident driveability keep the cabin pleasant, while a roomy 5-seater saloon layout adds real practicality. Low CO2 output backs up its claim as an environmentally-friendly car, and Honda markets the whole package as a step toward high efficiency transportation.
At low speeds, the electric motor lends real full bore acceleration support alongside a 20bhp boost, and a slightly trickling speed feel replaces the familiar slipping clutch sensation you’d get from a manual gearbox. Honda built this as a high volume model rather than a limited showcase, proving hybrid technology can reach ordinary buyers, not just early adopters. My own week with the car left me convinced this setup earns its badge fairly.
Driving
Honda quotes a maximum output of 113bhp and a peak torque of 225Nm, numbers that feel decent rather than thrilling. Unlike the Toyota Prius, this Honda rarely runs on electric power by itself, and that gap slightly dents its clean credentials.
The electric motor mostly works through the snatchy brakes, since the moment you coast or come to a stop, the engine stops completely and restarting happens the instant you lift off the brake. Most conventional engines actually run least efficient while accelerating, and this Honda does little to fix that habit. Even so, it stays smooth and simple to drive through town and out into busy motorway traffic.
The car prefers higher revs, and that habit, combined with its struggle to run properly on electric cells, explains why it missed its claimed economy figures in real-world testing. Long gearing, similar to many diesels, still could not close that gap.
Overall, the Honda drives well enough, but it never fully escapes the polluting habits shared with most petrol engine designs under hard acceleration.
Marketplace
The Civic Hybrid sold in a four-door body style barely resembles the European hatch most people picture when they think of a Civic, mainly because Honda built this version for America, where hybrids already mean big business. Since American buyers often lean toward conservative tastes, Honda avoided any groundbreaking design here, choosing familiar styling over an attractive design that might turn heads. Its clearest rival remains the Toyota Prius, though several diesel family hatchbacks actually prove more fuel-efficient in real-world use.
Owning
Step inside, and the interior of this toned-down Civic saloon never quite matches the stylish feel of the regular hatch, though the cabin still works well day to day. The driving position sits high and confident, backed by supportive seats and decent back space for rear passengers. A small gauge tucked into the dash stands as the only real clue that you’re sitting in a Hybrid rather than a standard Civic.
Practicality takes a small hit, since the boot offers limited floorspace and the car skips folding rear seats altogether, unlike some rivals. Huge A-pillar blind spots also catch new drivers out during tight junctions or roundabouts. At a price near £17,000, this Honda costs more than several diesel alternatives, including Honda’s own Honda diesel Civic.
That diesel version actually proved more economical in daily use, returning 44mpg against the hybrid’s 38mpg, which surprised plenty of owners who expected the opposite. Even so, low CO2 emissions keep this Civic attractive for company car drivers chasing tax savings. It’s a car built for sensible motoring rather than outright thrills, and it delivers exactly that.
Lively performance plus exceptional frugality
This Civic really earns its claim to increased performance, since the engine blends smoothly with an electric motor for real driving power whenever it’s needed. Regenerative braking captures energy that would otherwise vanish under braking, while a motor generator feeds that power back into a maintenance-free battery pack tucked behind the rear seat. A complete discharge almost never happens, thanks to smart self-charging control built into the whole mechanical layout.
Honda’s own electronic control system manages all of this without any driver input, and an electric power boost arrives exactly when moving off from rest or climbing during uphill driving. A cylinder idling system shuts down three cylinders, and sometimes all four cylinders, whenever the car benefits from regenerative braking again during city driving. An idle stop feature also triggers engine restart the instant you release the brake, cutting waste during engine start up.
On paper, this IMA returns 4.9 l/100km over the combined cycle, a full 30 per cent better than a standard 1.4 litre Civic, with performance close to a 1.6 litre Civic despite the smaller gear count doing the work. Carbon dioxide emissions sit at a low 116 g/km, comfortably inside Euro IV requirements, and Honda’s own Honda-patented design deserves the credit. That same Honda-patented design even beats the earlier Honda Insight for packaging flexibility and outright efficiency.
None of this works without smart aerodynamics: a reshaped front bumper, a neat boot spoiler, and underbody covers all work together to cut drag down to just 0.28, a genuinely impressive drag coefficient for a family saloon with a full-size boot. Better combustion efficiency, along with sharper tyres and electric power steering, known as EPS, adds a further 7 per cent saving, while the aerodynamic tweaks alone add another 25 per cent during real driving. Even the starter motor and alternator get a rethink here, both feeding into a genuinely compact car class package.
A VTEC system oversees valve timing so that motor assist kicks in only when useful, and the whole setup keeps working even during steady cruising, where the battery quietly recharges itself without any driver input. Coming to a full standstill no longer feels wasteful, and even a larger engined car would struggle to match this kind of restraint. These aerodynamic enhancements, paired with everything else under the skin, prove that small, clever engineering can beat brute force every time.
First to market with conventional, high volume model
Honda proudly calls this the first real mainstream platform to carry petrol-electric technology into ordinary family motoring, backed by a Civic range already sold as petrol or diesel. Over 15,000 units found buyers across Japan and the USA before this IMA even reached Europe. A proper European sales debut followed in the UK during May, with wider Europe-wide sales rolling out that winter.
Interestingly, the London congestion charging scheme exempted this car early on, giving it a real edge over less efficient rivals. Honda also picked up recognition for this petrol-electric power breakthrough, winning the Technology of the Year award from Industry Week, while its power unit earned top marks among 1.0 to 1.4 litre engines from Engine Technology International.
The principle of IMA
Every normal car needs strong brisk acceleration, and that demand alone forces engineers toward a bigger engine displacement than the car actually needs while holding a constant speed on a flat level road. Honda’s answer through the IMA system pairs a smaller, efficient petrol engine with an electric motor that steps in only during acceleration or up a steep hill. Engine and motor work as a team, each staying inside its own efficient range.
That same electric motor also captures energy during braking and deceleration, so it never needs an outside power source and it never has to be plugged in at home. While coasting, or during any conventional braking, the generator turns forward momentum and kinetic energy into useful electrical energy instead of wasting it as heat. Honda stores that power inside a Ni-MH battery pack fitted in the boot, right behind the rear seat.
If the charge state ever drops low, the same motor generator quietly tops itself up during ordinary cruising, keeping the whole system self-sufficient. This clever balance of power and regenerative braking means the Civic never runs short, no matter the driving conditions.
Compact transmission assembly
Honda picked the 1.3 litre four-cylinder i-DSI unit from the Jazz as the ideal base engine for this job, since its low fuel consumption and strong torque across a low speed range and medium speed range made it perfect for hybrid duty. Its short length let engineers fit an in-line electric motor neatly inside the same engine bay space, just 833 mm long, that a bigger 1.6 litre engine would normally fill. That kind of compact dimensions thinking runs through the entire 4 cylinder layout.
Sitting between the engine and a conventional 5-speed transmission, an ultra-thin motor, just 65 mm thick, builds on the earlier Insight design but pushes further for real output density. This DC brushless motor produces torque of 57 Nm, peaking usefully around 1,000 rpm, exactly where an assist boost matters most at low rpm and mid rpm. Combined maximum power output and maximum torque reach 66 kW, quoted as 90 PS, alongside 159 Nm through the transmission.
The output shaft connects directly from engine to motor, and then straight into the transmission, so both always spin together without slip. At the heart of it all sits the Intelligent Power Unit, known as IPU, combining the Power Control Unit, or PCU, together with the whole battery system. That battery pack holds 120 cells rated at 1.2 V each, giving 144 V overall and 6 Ah of capacity.
Ni-MH technology keeps output characteristics stable no matter the charging condition, and it shows real durability against the demanding electric currents involved in assist and regeneration. Compared with the older Insight, Honda reworked the motor windings for better wire density, then merged the PCU and battery into the new IPU, cutting volume reduction by 42%.
Combining the inverter with a pre-driver trimmed weight reduction by 28% and volume by 39%, while new silicon wafers inside that same inverter cut heat loss by 25%. A smarter cooling system now needs 85% less energy consumption, while also shedding 32% weight and 20% volume. Better energy flow through the whole battery module lowered resistance and energy losses, lifting output density again by 23%, and the battery box itself shrank by 30% while dropping 6% in weight.
This whole petrol engine and electric motor duo proves that hybrid technology never needed to feel complicated. Peak power actually lands at 5,700 rpm, and Honda even offered this exact setup within the four-door bodystyle badged as the Civic 4 door, proving real economy gains never had to come at the cost of everyday usability.
The Engine
Honda Civic IMA i-DSI engine, short for intelligent Dual and Sequential Ignition, delivers low CO2 emissions and strong fuel economy by firing two spark plugs per cylinder mounted diagonally apart.
A tight valve angle of 30 degrees, paired with a single pivot head, creates a high-swirl combustion chamber that burns fuel fast and completely, all running through a simple SOHC layout rather than anything more complex.
Each intake side spark plug fires first, and as the flame spreads through flame propagation, the exhaust side plug follows just before top-dead-centre. That sequence produces faster combustion and higher cylinder pressures, boosting overall engine output and power output. It also cuts down on engine knocking, allowing a high compression ratio of 10.8:1 for better economy.
Honda’s ignition timing map balances torque against efficiency across every situation. At wide throttle openings, up to around 2,600 rpm, intake side ignition fires early while the exhaust side lags slightly; through the mid range, that gap on the exhaust side grows further to sharpen output,
and near top engine speeds, both plugs fire in one smooth ignition for maximum punch. At part throttle, this simultaneous ignition phase stretches out even further, starting from as low as 3,500 rpm.
FAQs of Civic IMA
What is the Honda Civic IMA?
The Honda Civic IMA is a mainstream petrol-electric car pairing a 1.3 litre engine with an electric motor for real fuel economy.
How does the IMA system actually work?
The IMA system uses regenerative braking to recharge the Ni-MH battery pack, then releases that electrical energy as electric power during acceleration.
Is the Civic IMA more fuel-efficient than diesel rivals?
Not always several diesel alternatives, including the Honda diesel Civic, often return better mileage in real-world use.
How is the Civic IMA different from the Toyota Prius?
Unlike the Toyota Prius, the Civic IMA’s electric motor mainly assists the engine rather than driving the car on its own.
Is the Honda Civic IMA still worth buying today?
For anyone chasing genuine fuel economy, low CO2 emissions, and solid build quality, the Civic IMA remains an honest, unstoppable pick.
