New Honda Civic Type R may never be sold here

It's finally on sale in Europe after being repeatedly spied and hyped since 2013, but Honda's most ferocious ever Civic Type R remains unconfirmed for Australia and may never become available here.

The shock news was confirmed to motoring.com.au today by Honda Australia director Stephen Collins at the launch of the Accord Sport Hybrid – the company's new flagship sedan and first hybrid since the petrol-electric Insight, CR-Z and Civic were axed.

There are a range of problems with the Type R for Honda Australia, explained Collins.

First is strong demand in Europe and the UK, where it's built, potentially making the Type-R unavailable to the Australian market until 2017.

By that time Honda Australia will have launched the 10th-generation Civic, which we've seen in spy shots and will debut in North America by the end of 2015, following Honda's decision to 'short-cycle' the Mk9 Civic, which was only released in Australia in 2012.

The Mk10 Civic sedan and coupe will be built and sold in the US from later this year, before it arrives Down Under in sedan and hatch guise next year from Thailand.

Meantime, the Honda's Swindon plant in England will again produce the Civic hatch in both five-door hatch and three-door coupe form – the latter forming the basis of the next-generation Type-R.

The key question is when Honda UK ceases production of the current Civic hatch and just-released Type-R, and switches over to the new model. That could occur as soon as next year but is more likely to happen in 2017, giving Honda's hottest hatch a global model cycle of less than two years.

If it's sold here, the Type R's lifespan would be even shorter in Australia, given Honda has now confirmed it will first release sedan and hatch versions of the new Civic next year, followed in late 2016 by the NSX – US production of which has also been delayed for Australia.

Collins, who has already seen the next-generation Civic Type R due around 2018, said the current Type R remains unconfirmed for Australia, where it wouldn't arrive until late 2016 at the earliest.

"[Civic] Type R timing [for Australia] is still to be confirmed," he said. "I'm confident it will happen, it's just a matter of when."

However, he added that it was unlikely Honda Australia would introduce the Mk9 Civic-based Type R after the new Mk10 went on sale here -- or if its lifespan was less than six months or so.

"There's no question we need it as a halo car, even if it's very low volume. But we don't want to sell a performance model like that for just four, five or six months."

Collins reiterated his previous position that Honda Australia's priority is the new NSX, which like the Accord hybrid – and potentially the new-generation Jazz hybrid, new Civic hybrid and Accord plug-in hybrid – will be sold exclusively through five specialist metropolitan specialist hybrid dealers around Australia.

He said the Type-R, a business case for which has not been finalised, would not be imported before the NSX, and that Honda UK's Type R production focus remains firmly on Europe, where demand remains strong.

Collins would not confirm reports Honda is also working on a three-model mid-engined sports car family with the NSX at the top, a 'mini-NSX' S2000-size coupe in the middle and a turbocharged 1.0-litre version of Japan's new S660 baby-roadster at the bottom.

"I'm not aware of those models, but we've said sporty Hondas are what we're about and if new ones become available we'd have a very close look at them."

However, the Honda Oz boss gave the strongest hint yet that the standard Mk10 Civic will debut Honda's new range of turbocharged VTEC petrol engines first seen at the 2013 Tokyo motor show.

"Development of a new Civic is well under way and we'll also start to see the first new VTEC turbo engines here from next year," he said.

We understand the new Civic will continue with the current model's 1.8- or 2.0-litre engines at base level, while the new 1.5-litre VTEC TURBO four-cylinder petrol engine, which delivers up to 150kW and 260Nm, will power upstream versions.

A 1.6-litre turbo-diesel could be offered too, and Collins said the new Civic hybrid would also be considered.

Meantime, Honda's smaller new 1.0-litre three-cylinder VTEC TURBO petrol triple, which offers up to 95kW and 200Nm, is expected to find its way into the Jazz, perhaps for a midlife upgrade due around 2017.

Both downsized direct-injection turbo-petrol engines are expected to be matched with six-speed manual and new eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmissions – the latter with a torque converter for smoother low-speed operation.

The larger new 2.0-litre VTEC TURBO engine powers the new 230kW/400Nm Civic Type-R, which is claimed to hit 100km/h in just 5.7 seconds on its way to a 270km/h top speed and is now on sale in the UK priced from £29,995 ($A60,500) on the road.

The Mk10 Civic, meantime, is based around a new global platform that has taken three years to develop and was largely engineered at Honda’s Ohio technical centre and designed in California.

Honda Europe is once again developing the hatchback version, which returns to the US and will be built in the UK, where Australia's current Civic hatch and diesel are made, and Thailand – which will produce both Civic models for Australia and already supplies 70 per cent of all Hondas sold here.

Larger than the current Civic to help fill the void created by the discontinuation of the Accord Euro, Honda claims its next Civic will "target class-leading levels of safety performance" with a range of Honda Sensing driver aids including Lane Departure Warning, Forward Collision Warning, Multi-Angle Rearview Camera, Adaptive Cruise Control and Honda LaneWatch.

Civic sales are down more than 50 per cent so far this year, but Collins said the 2016 Civic will play a key role in Honda Australia's long-term strategy to return to 60,000 annual sales and remain one of its four core models alongside the Jazz, HR-V and CR-V.

"Civic is one of our core cars and the next-generation Civic will be [here] next year, starting with sedan and then hatch," he said.

"The next big [sales] jump for us will be Civic. It will certainly head us in that direction [60,000 sales]."