3rd-Gen Honda HR-V Spotted In KL. Launching Soon With VTEC Turbo, e:HEV?

We already know that the all-new HR-V will be launching in 2022 with Honda Malaysia themselves seemingly confirming its arrival at a recent media relations event. However, we didn’t know just how soon that would be. Now we kinda do.

This is the first time the 3rd-generation HR-V has been spotted on Malaysian soil, and here the highly camouflaged (conspicuous much?) unit was seen in broad daylight by many in typical Kuala Lumpur traffic as it journeyed between what looks like Cheras and the Sungai Besi highway. Almost seems intentional...

Shortly after, photos and video emerged on social media, specifically from the Proton X50 Community group page, posted by user Mohd Asrul B Saari.

With presumably multiple (test) units of the all-new HR-V rolling around our roads, that’s decent indication that Honda is at least contemplating a launch within the next few months when the public expectation was set much more conservatively for later in 2022.

The reason for this is the expected possible complications surrounding the component acquisition and supply of its powertrain in addition to the car's supposed CKD status from launch. For other markets such as Thailand, this is exclusively Honda’s i-MMD e:HEV hybrid drive.

It is essentially the same powerplant that features in City RS and City Hatchback RS e:HEV and in the HR-V is expected to share identical outputs 105PS and 253Nm from its electric traction motor.

However, it’s also expected that the bulk of the all-new HR-V’s variants in Malaysia will be powered by the 1.5-litre VTEC Turbo, invariably paired to a CVT to drive the front wheels. In this configuration, it could match the 182PS and 240Nm found in the 11th-gen Civic.

This would be mirroring how the all-new HR-V is sold in Singapore where a choice is given to the buyer between hybrid or petrol-only.

Its predecessor, the outgoing second-generation HR-V (also called the Vezel in some markets) has been one of Honda’s most consistently successful models and in Malaysia had dominated the B-segment SUV market for many years before more recent competitors started to challenge its reign.

Still, despite showing its age, it does still manage to put up a good fight against younger, hungrier rivals as we’ve shown in our four-way B-segment SUV shootout video series.