The 2026 Honda CR-V: A Refresh That Adds a Trail-Ready Hybrid and Puts a Bigger Screen in Every Trim — Rated 8/10
Honda's best-selling model gains a first-ever TrailSport Hybrid, standard wireless smartphone mirroring across the range, and keeps its Ontario-built hybrid at the centre of the lineup. Prices open at $36,975. The Torbrook rating: 8/10.
Where Toyota rebuilt the RAV4 from scratch this year, Honda has taken the other route. The 2026 CR-V is a refresh of the sixth generation rather than a new one — the bones carry over, and the changes are concentrated in the trim lineup and the cabin technology. On the evidence of the spec sheet, that is a defensible call.
Seven trims are offered, four of them hybrid. Honda Canada's launch pricing opened the range with the LX in front-wheel drive at $36,975 and the LX AWD at $39,775, followed by the gasoline Sport AWD at $43,375. The hybrids run from the Sport Hybrid at $45,900 through the new TrailSport Hybrid at $47,300 and the EX-L Hybrid at $48,700 to the Touring Hybrid at $51,200. All-wheel drive is standard on everything except the base front-drive LX.
Two powertrains cover the range. The gasoline cars use a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder with a continuously variable transmission, rated at 190 horsepower and 179 pound-feet of torque. The hybrids pair a 2.0-litre Atkinson-cycle four with two electric motors in the fourth generation of Honda's two-motor system, good for 204 horsepower and 247 pound-feet — and, more to the point, combined fuel consumption of 6.4 litres per 100 kilometres against 7.8 for the front-drive gasoline car and 8.4 for gasoline all-wheel drive.
The genuinely new entry is the TrailSport Hybrid, the first Honda SUV to combine the company's TrailSport rugged treatment with the two-motor hybrid system. It arrives on Continental CrossContact all-terrain tires wrapped around Shark Gray 18-inch wheels, adds a silver front skid garnish and orange TrailSport badging, and brings an exclusive Ash Green Pearl paint. Every all-wheel-drive model this year also gains enhanced traction management below 14 km/h.
The cabin upgrades are the sort buyers notice daily. A nine-inch colour touchscreen is now standard on every trim, as are wireless Apple CarPlay, wireless Android Auto and a wireless phone charger — features that on many rivals remain reserved for upper trims. The Sport, Sport Hybrid, TrailSport Hybrid and Touring Hybrid add a 10.2-inch full digital instrument display, 46 per cent larger than the unit it replaces, while lower trims run a seven-inch driver display. Honda Sensing, the company's driver-assistance suite, is standard across the range, as is the latest Advanced Compatibility Engineering body structure. Seating is for five.
Two figures from Honda Canada explain why any of this matters commercially. The CR-V Hybrid is, by the company's own account, Canada's best-selling hybrid SUV, and hybrids now account for more than 40 per cent of all Honda brand sales in this country. Like the RAV4, the CR-V is also built here: gasoline and hybrid models alike come out of Honda of Canada Manufacturing in Alliston, Ontario.
An 8/10 from the Torbrook Rating Agency reflects a lineup that adds where it counts and leaves alone what was already working. The specifications above are Honda's; the score is ours.
This review assesses the vehicle on its published specifications and the manufacturer's stated figures. It is not based on a road test by the Rating Agency, and the score is the Agency's own independent judgment. Honda did not request, pay for, or have advance knowledge of this review. Ratings cannot be bought.