Electric Honda Civic Type R still on the table: performance brand's EV future

This year marks the end of the Type R brand in the UK – at least for the time being – as the Civic Type R hot hatch goes off sale. But Honda has strongly hinted the future for its sporting badge will live on into the electric age. 

Speaking to Auto Express at the launch of the new Prelude, Honda's project leader for the Prelude, Tomoyuki Yamagami, said the “Type R can be anything in future, depending on what’s the market demands” and the “Type R is not dependent on a turbo powertrain” – referring to the outgoing Civic Type R’s turbocharged 2.0-litre unit. 

Rather than get into specifics regarding Type R’s potential electrification, Yamagami also reiterated to us that for Honda, the “Type R badge is about the ability to enhance dynamic attributes to the max” – a facet that’ll seemingly continue into the future, no matter the power source. 

The comments by Yamagami align with those made by Toshihiro Akiwa, head of the Japanese firm’s BEV Development Centre, who gave us some insight into Type R’s future at the unveiling of the first two 0 Series EV prototypes at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year.

“A battery and motor have different characteristics so we can’t come up with something exactly the same as before,” said Akiwa. “As an EV, how can we provide the joy of driving? We haven’t given up of course, but it’s not just about power, it’s about the sound, vibration, acceleration and the human experience. These are the joys of driving.” 

The two 0 Series cars, a large saloon and a mid-sized SUV, hit production in 2026 as the first of seven cars to be spun off Honda’s new EV platform, but the firm is yet to divulge any plans for performance versions, despite the EV motors set to run up to around 480bhp. 

The latest-generation regular Civic is a 181bhp hybrid, but the soon-to-be axed Civic Type R, currently the only model in the UK to wear the Type-R badge, is a traditional 2.0-litre petrol engine boasting 329bhp. The Type R badge has been historically associated with the Civic here in the UK, though a few other models, such as the Integra Type R and the Accord Type R, also featured the hallowed name too. 

The performance electric vehicle market is slowly beginning to emerge, with Hyundai first to prove it’s possible to make engaging fast EVs with the Ioniq 5 N, and the Alpine A290 has recently been released for sale in the UK. 

Prior to the Hyundai and Alpine, fast EVs have in the main simply been more powerful versions of regular electric cars, with little or no chassis, braking or engineering upgrades to accompany the extra power.

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