The next Honda Civic Type R may be just six months from Australian showrooms – but if overseas reports are a guide, getting one won’t be easy.
The 2023 Honda Civic Type R appears set to arrive in Australian showrooms late this year or early next year – and if overseas reports are a guide, production may be very limited.
While Honda Australia is yet to lock in timing for the new Civic Type R, multiple metro dealers canvassed by Drive reported order books opening towards the end of this year, ahead of first deliveries in early 2023.
It’s a slight delay compared to the late 2022 delivery timing previously hinted at by Honda Australia executives – though Honda, like other brands, continues to face a compromised global supply chain, which is likely to have influenced arrival timing.
Pricing is yet to be confirmed for Australia, but given the standard Civic was hit with a $7600 price hike for its latest generation, the new Civic Type R is likely to cost close to $65,000 drive-away. The old Type R was $54,990 plus on-road costs, or approaching $60,000 on the road.
In addition to a higher price, the new Civic Type R may be a far more limited proposition than its predecessor – at least if new overseas reports have any impact on Australia.
According to two Honda dealership staff – and customers in the queue – on the CivicXI enthusiast forum, the new Civic Type R (codenamed FL5) will be sold in Canada for just three model years, across which time just 546 examples will be built.
The production limit equates to 182 vehicles for Canada each year – reportedly allocated only to larger dealerships that have sold “at least” five previous-generation Type Rs each year. Production will reportedly end after 2025.
Whether the Canadian report is applicable to Australia remains to be seen, as Honda Australia is yet to confirm how many Civic Type Rs will be made available locally.
Dealers in Australia told Drive supply of the new Type R is expected to be limited, at least in the first release of cars – but exactly how limited, and whether it’s a result of intentionally-low production numbers, or just ongoing parts shortages remains to be seen.
An estimated 1200 to 1300 examples of the previous-generation Civic Type R (FK8) were sold in Australia over its lifespan (October 2017 to mid-2021) – with the Type R typically accounting for about 3.5 per cent of total Civic sales.
One indicator could be 2021’s Limited Edition swansong variant; of the 1020-examples global production run, 100 were allocated to Canada, while 20 were sold in Australia.
Influencing Australia’s allocation compared to the US and Canada will be where our cars are built – with a different production site for our market having the chance to open up greater supply for local buyers.
While it’s widely expected Australian models will be sourced from Japan – where the standard Civic is built – it remains to be seen if North American examples are made in the US alongside the standard American-market Civic hatch, or if they will be imported from Japan.
The old Civic Type R was built in Honda’s former factory in Swindon, UK, which shut down with the end of previous-generation Civic Type R production in July 2021.
It’s also unclear if the brief Canadian production run – which is one year shorter than the outgoing ‘FK8’ Type R – will apply to the whole world, or just that market.
In recent years, Civic generations have typically been produced for around six years – meaning the current range isn’t due for replacement until 2027 – with the Type R grades typically going on sale a year or two into each generation’s life cycle (though there are exceptions).
Limited production is a barrier facing one of the new Type R’s closest rivals, the all-wheel-drive Toyota GR Corolla – 8600 of which will be built for the world for Model Year 2023, 6600 of which are slated for the US.
That leaves 2000 for the rest of the world – with a figure closer to 500 likely to reach Australia in the first year (as Europe does not take the model, and other major markets are limited to Canada, Japan and New Zealand).
Official Australian launch timing is expected to be confirmed at the full reveal of the 2023 Honda Civic Type R, which will occur before the end of August (the European summer).
For everything we know so far about the next Civic Type R – including engines, transmissions, design, interior and more – click here to browse Drive’s earlier coverage.
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