UK Civic Hybrids escape battery issue

Honda says it's not expecting British customers of its Civic Hybrid to experience the battery problems some US customers are reporting.

In America, some owners of the Civic Hybrid claim the batteries that power its Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) electric drive system aren't lasting their expected lifetime.

Also, it has been claimed that the software upgrade that Honda has introduced to fix the battery problem can harm fuel economy and CO2 emissions of the remedied cars.

A spokeswoman in the US said that owners of '06-'08 Civic Hybrids would be offered a free battery management software upgrade to bring them up to the standards used in later models, and said that Honda didn't expect 'any change to the overall fuel economy' to the affected cars.

However, Honda in the UK said it has investigated the issue with cars in its showrooms and long-standing Civic Hybrid customers.

'There are no cases of this occurring here and it is not affecting cars in Europe either,' said a spokesman. 'We are not anticipating any problems.'