Honda Brings Advanced-Safety Tech to Mass-Market CR-V

NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP, MI – Advanced safety technologies such as lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist and collision-mitigation braking have been the purview of luxury vehicles in the U.S.

But the Honda brand is offering those technologies, plus more, on the ’15 CR-V.

“I think it’s the right time” to bring advanced safety to the mainstream, James Jenkins, manager-product planning for Honda Trucks at American Honda, tells WardsAuto here during a ’15 CR-V drive.

Besides lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist and collision-mitigation braking, Honda also will have as standard adaptive cruise control, forward-collision warning and its LaneWatch passenger-side-mirror camera on the new Touring grade of the CR-V in a safety suite it calls Honda Sensing.

The branding of the technologies, which will filter down into other Honda models, should help bring awareness to them and please customers who want safer vehicles, Jenkins says. “It’s stuff you don’t normally see (in mass-market models).”

Some of the technologies are more advanced than others, says John Turley, principal engineer-Advanced Product Planning for Honda R&D Americas.

For instance, the CR-V’s ACC cuts off below 25 mph (16 km/h), falling short of some other ACC systems that can function below that speed and even bring vehicles to a complete stop, useful for stop-and-go driving in heavy traffic.

However, Honda’s collision-mitigation-braking system is quite sophisticated, Turley says, able to perform an autonomous stop from up to 37 mph (60 km/h).

“That’s class-leading, and world-leading in fact,” he claims, noting the automaker’s previous CMBS only “scrubbed off speed” to slow a car if it detected a collision was imminent.

The CUV’s front camera, introduced for the ’13 CR-V, now is fused with radar to detect both objects and people, as well as track their position and relative velocity for the CMBS.

Honda calls the CR-V heavily refreshed for ’15, with Jenkins noting styling changes, both outside and inside the vehicle, and a powertrain update, have been made.

The CUV has a newly designed front grille, headlights, a “wider rear appearance” and new, larger 18-in. wheels as part of the Touring grade.

The Touring grade also includes as standard high-end features such as a power tailgate, a CR-V first, and navigation.

A complete rethinking of the center stack and center console was undertaken, Jenkins says. New features include a larger, 7-in. (18-cm) touchscreen as well as customer-requested rear-seat vents, which gave Honda the opportunity to add a center armrest, replacing seat-mounted fold-down armrests in the ’14 CR-V.

The CR-V’s 2.4L direct-injected gasoline 4-cyl. receives a large boost in torque, going from 163 lb.-ft. (221 Nm) for the ’14 model to 181 lb.-ft. (245 Nm) for ’15. Horsepower remains the same, at 185, although the peak falls from 7,000 rpm to 6,400 rpm.

Honda also has swapped out the ’14 CR-V’s 5-speed automatic transmission in favor of CVT similar to that in the Accord sedan and coupe.

This change helps improve fuel economy in both front- and all-wheel-drive variants.

Combined city/highway ratings for the former goes from 26 mpg (9.0 L/100 km) to 29 mpg (8.1 L/100 km), and the AWD CR-V sees an increase from 25 mpg (9.4 L/100 km) to 28 mpg (8.4 L/100 km).

Jenkins still sees the CR-V target buyer as a 30-something female, possibly with a small family, and an annual household income of $90,000.

He is certain the changes made to the CR-V for ’15, coupled with what he calls attractive pricing, will allow Honda to keep its leadership position in the Middle CUV segment in the U.S.

Honda has been No.1 in the group for the past two years with the CR-V, WardsAuto data shows, and in 2013 for the first surpassed 300,000 sales in a calendar year, a feat Jenkins expects the CUV to repeat this year.

CR-V sales through September totaled 241,015, up 5.2% vs. the same period year-ago. Its closest competitor, the Ford Escape, delivered 230,162 units through September, flat with year-ago.

Pricing for the ’15 CR-V ranges from $23,320 for an LX base grade to $31,520 for the new Touring model. The ’14 CR-V LX was $23,120 and the formerly highest grade, EX-L, was $27,870. The ’15 prices do not include an $830 destination and handling charge.

The ’15 CR-V is on sale now at U.S. Honda dealers.

The automaker in winter 2015 in the U.S. will debut a sub-CR-V CUV, the HR-V, built on its Fit subcompact-car platform. A new Pilot large CUV is expected next year as well.

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