Honda kills combustion CR-V: 2028 model goes 100% hybrid

Honda will build the seventh-generation CR-V, due next year as a 2028 model, with a two-motor hybrid as its only powertrain — and it's backing the move with a 250% expansion of hybrid system capacity at its Ohio transmission plant.

The SUV is the first of several hybrids Honda intends to bring to North America by 2030, riding an all-new platform as the automaker leans harder on hybrids for growth. This is not a niche experiment: the CR-V is on course to top 400,000 US sales for a third straight year. To put that in perspective, that's roughly one CR-V sold every 80 seconds, all year.

Hybrids already account for more than 50% of the CR-V's mix and about 30% of Honda brand sales in the US. In a statement, Luis Guerra, Assistant Vice President of Honda National Auto Sales, said: "With a 100% hybrid powertrain, the next-generation Honda CR-V will further expand the appeal of America's most popular SUV as demand for hybrid-electric vehicles reaches record levels."

What changes under the hood?

The fifth-generation hybrid system widens the band in which the engine runs at its most efficient and adds a new electric all-wheel-drive unit. Honda targets a fuel economy gain of more than 10% over the outgoing system.

The new platform pairs high body rigidity with low weight, and its modular layout allows more shared parts across vehicles. That last detail matters more than it sounds — it's the mechanism Honda is counting on to hold down costs.

Where will it be built?

Production draws on Honda's recently announced US hybrid investment, spread across an established manufacturing footprint:

• Hybrid systems come from Honda's transmission plant in Ohio, where capacity rises by 250% — a three-and-a-half-fold increase
• The Anna Engine Plant in Ohio retools for a new four-cylinder Atkinson-cycle engine
• Final assembly stays at Honda of Canada Mfg., East Liberty in Ohio, and Honda's Indiana plant

Honda has built more than seven million CR-Vs in North America since 2006, roughly half of them in the US. The plants know the vehicle; the change is what goes into it.

Why go all-hybrid now?

Three reasons, none of them sentimental.

First, hybrids are becoming the volume default. Toyota has already dropped pure combustion from the RAV4 — the vehicle the CR-V chases — and removing gas-only variants from America's best-selling SUV segment suggests the hybrid is now the baseline powertrain for compact crossovers, not the premium option.

Second, demand has replaced regulation as the driver. With US fuel economy penalties effectively eliminated, Honda didn't have to do this. A 100% hybrid line-up signals that customers, not compliance schedules, are steering the company's more cautious US electrification strategy.

Third, affordability is the open question. Dropping the cheaper combustion entry point could push the CR-V's starting price upward at a moment of broader US affordability pressure. That puts real weight on the new platform's parts commonality to contain costs. The strategy works on paper; the window sticker will tell us if it works in showrooms.

What to watch next

Watch the 2028 model's launch next year for the starting price, the first real test of whether platform savings offset the loss of the base gas trim. Then track whether Honda's Ohio transmission plant hits its 250% capacity milestone on schedule — and whether the promised additional hybrids for North America arrive before the 2030 deadline.