Honda Delivers Pop Stars and Hot Hatches in New York

If you know who Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas are, you might be the demographic for Honda’s newcomer to the U.S. — a hatchback version of the Honda Civic.

To the musically uneducated, Lovato and Jonas are songwriters, pop superstars, and actors. And today they were at a Honda event ahead of the 2016 New York auto show because they are the co-headliners of the Civic Tour that starts June 24.

To the hatchback uneducated, Honda offered a three-door hatchback in the U.S. in the 1990s and has sold a lot of hot five-doors in Europe. But the five-door Civic has never been offered in the U.S., where for years hatches were not popular even as their Canadian counterparts embraced the practicality of the body style.

But that has changed, said Jeff Conrad, general manager of the Honda brand. “We see growth in the segment. It is why we brought it over,” he said of the global car that will go on sale in the U.S. this fall. Pricing has not been announced for a car that represents incremental sales for Honda. Conrad sees hatchbacks growing in popularity over the next few years as Gen Y embraces them as a cool way to transport a lot of stuff without getting a utility vehicle that might be more space than their lifestyle needs. And these young buyers have admired Europe’s hot hatches and lusted after them. He would not provide volume projections or say whether the hatch should do better than the coupe which accounts for about 10 percent of Civic sales in the U.S.

To add to the hype, Nick Lee, Honda’s national advertising manager, announced the Civic coupe will take part in the Global Rallycross (GRC) series for the first time, starting in May. The rallycross car was unveiled today.

And Lovato showed off the Civic sedan she designed: matte black but giving the appearance it goes so fast that some of the paint melted off.

The five-door Civic hatch concept made its global debut earlier this month at the Geneva auto show and is the basis for the Type R performance Civic expected next year. The regular hatchback, while a core European model, will actually go on sale in the U.S. first and then go on sale in Europe early in 2017. It will be built at Honda of the UK Manufacturing and exported to the U.S. Honda has not decided whether to offer the hatchback in Japan.

The 10^th-genertion Civic sedan went on sale in November in the U.S. The Civic hatch, like the sedan and coupe, gets Honda’s new 1.5-liter turbocharged engine and a CVT (continuously variable transmission). Honda also officially announced that turbo models will have the option of a six-speed manual starting with the 2017 model year.

Also still to come is the Si. Officials have not said if a hybrid is in the plans, as well. The Honda Civic was the 6^th best-selling car in the U.S. last year, with 335,384 sold, a 3-percent increase over 2014.

 

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