American Honda Believes Civic Hatchback Will Not Cannibalize Civic Sedan Sales

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Not since the sixth-generation Honda Civic of 1996-2000 has American Honda made a hatchback available as a conventional part of the Civic lineup.

Yes, there was the British-built Civic hatchback of 2002-2005, but it was an Si-only model with limited appeal and little connection to the broader Civic lineup.

The new 2017 Honda Civic Hatchback that’s now reaching North American shores — it’s built at the same Swindon, England, plant as the aforementioned Civic Si — is another thing altogether. It’s not merely a two-door hatchback entry into the Civic fold, as the Civic hatch so often was in the distant past. Nor is the new Civic Hatchback exclusively meant to be a performance-oriented hot hatch, though it will form the foundation of North America’s first-ever Civic Type R.

No, the new, turbo-only, four-door Civic Hatchback closely mirrors the upper-trim levels of the established tenth-generation Civic lineup. Presumably, then, the new Civic Hatchback, with all of its flexibility and practicality and tailgate possibilities, will steal sales from the regular Honda Civic sedan and coupe?

Honda says no.

In consumer clinics conducted by American Honda, says spokesperson James Jenkins, “We found customers were specific in wanting a sedan, a coupe, or a hatchback.”

Not only were the potential Civic clients largely convinced by their bodystyle of choice, their desires to have a particular bodystyle crossed out the possibility of considering the other bodystyles.

“A very small percentage were willing to switch over to a different body style when their intention may have been a sedan, for example,” Jenkins told TTAC via email.

On the one hand, Honda’s consequent lack of concern regarding the possibility of cannibalization isn’t surprising. A potential Honda Civic Coupe buyer isn’t going to be enticed by easier rear seat ingress — style is the priority, rear seat occupants won’t frequent the Civic Coupe owner’s car. Similarly, the Honda Civic Hatchback buyer won’t find the allure of a stylish roofline nearly so fetching once he realizes the hatch’s yawning cargo aperture is gone.

As for the Civic Hatchback vs. Civic Sedan conundrum, Honda’s clinic-based belief that the Civic Hatchback won’t simply find its demand from the vast network of Civic Sedan owners is curious if only because the cars share such similar exterior profiles. The Civic Hatchback clearly offers a measure of flexibility missing in the trunked Civic — total interior volume is 12 percent greater in the hatch — but the hatch by no means advertises its distinguishing characteristics. After all, the four-door Civic-with-a-trunk already has a very liftback look.

Put another way, if potential Civic customers are turned off by hatchbackesque styling, wouldn’t they have already been turned off by the sedan’s hatchback styling? And since tens of thousands of buyers every month are willing to accept hatchbackesque styling in the sedan, why wouldn’t they buy the actual hatchback?

Assuming American Honda is correct and the 2017 Honda Civic Hatchback will only add to the Civic lineup’s appeal; that the Civic Hatchback will take a bite out of a market currently held by the Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra GT, Kia Forte, Mazda3, Subaru Impreza, Volkswagen Golf, and Scion iM; then we’re soon to see tremendously healthy Honda Civic sales figures climb even higher.

The Honda Civic is America’s second-best-selling car through the first seven months of 2016. At the current rate of growth, Honda is on track to sell more than 380,000 Civics in calendar year 2016 without help from a hatchback bodystyle. Over the last decade, Honda averaged 304,000 annual Civic sales.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.

Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

More by Timothy Cain

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 53 comments
  • Higheriq Higheriq on Aug 31, 2016

    So Honda believes the hatchback won't cannibalize sales of the sedan. Here's a question: why does it matter? A sale of a Civic is a sale of a Civic.

  • Whatnext Whatnext on Aug 31, 2016

    It looks like the hatchback has a less fast roofline than the sedan? Rear door opening looks more practical.

  • CoastieLenn For those that care to read the details of the crash NOT included in this article but published elsewhere- this happened at nearly 10pm when the CRV was stopped in the center lane of travel, lights off, with the driver remaining in the car. Not only is it not known if Blue Cruise was being used, it would have been a nightmare for most alert human drivers to mitigate that driving the 70+mph speed limit on many sections of I-10 in Texas, much less an AV system.
  • Jeff This is what I would want: Toyota has now released an affordable truck called the Toyota IMV 0. The newly developed vehicle made in Thailand comes with a rear-wheel drive and a gasoline 2.0-liter inline-four matched to a 5-speed manual transmission. NEW $10,000 Toyota Pickup Has Ford & GM Crapping ... YouTube · Tech Machine 8 minutes, 46 seconds Dec 26, 2023
  • Jalop1991 At the same time, let's take these drivers off the road--at least the ones that haven't yet taken themselves off the road.I can guarantee, at no point was this guy or any of the dead Tesla-stans actually driving the car. They were staring at their phones, because, HEY, SELF DRIVING!!
  • 3-On-The-Tree To Maintenance Costs His best friend did the union meetings and he said that there wasn’t a lot of negotiating taking place between the union and state because they were happy with how the state was treating them. He said it seemed more like a formality having the union.
  • 3-On-The-Tree He retired from the Navy after 25 years then worked for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources as a Wild land Firefighter for 20 years.
Next