The first production unit of the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid sedan has been built at the automaker’s Alliston, Ont. assembly plant.

Honda Canada shared photos of the first ready car Wednesday, June 26.

“Honda of Canada Manufacturing is a proud Canadian innovation story that invests strategically in technology and its associates on the path to electrification,” said Jean Marc Leclerc, president and CEO of Honda Canada Inc., in a news release. “Companies like Honda face much complexity and many challenges as we evolve and transition our business to an electrified future. We’ve accomplished a great deal so far, but we have more to do to have battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles represent 100 per cent of our North American vehicle sales by 2040. We appreciate the ongoing support from all levels of government, and the support from our suppliers, partners and dealers who have joined us on this journey.”

The Civic Hybrid sedan is being mass produced at Honda of Canada Mfg. (HCM) in Alliston, where the non-hybrid Civic is also built for the North American market. The Civic Hybrid hatchback will be built in Greensburg, Indiana.

Honda Canada said it spent $1.38 billion to prepare HCM’s current facilities to be the North American lead production plant for the CR-V and Civic Hybrid.

Honda expects the hybrid model will represent 60 per cent of all Civic sales in Canada.

The automaker said that by retooling its production lines at HCM to prepare them for hybrid production, Honda was able to maintain thousands of well-paying, high-quality jobs in Alliston and through its Canadian supplier network.

“With the Civic Hybrid, all of our 4,200 associates at Honda of Canada Manufacturing are now involved with Honda’s electrification strategy,” said Bobbi Curran, vice president, Honda of Canada Mfg., in the release. “Hybrid production is an important step that transitions us to the EV future and we are proud to continue sharing our success while growing with the community of Alliston that HCM calls home.”

EV value chain

Honda’s planned electric vehicle value chain, when complete, will include four new plants, including two that will be built alongside the existing HCM facilities.

The intended goal is for the EV value chain to include all aspects of EV production in Canada, from procurement of raw materials for batteries to the production of finished electric vehicles.

Honda expects EV production will begin in 2028 and that its EV plant, once fully operational, would have a production capacity of 240,000 EVs per year and that its battery plant would have a capacity of 36 GWh per year.