Honda Malaysia has announced that the Honda HR-V facelift is now open for booking ahead of its official market introduction, which is expected sometime this quarter. Additionally, customers who register their HR-V before October 31 will be rewarded with a Petronas gift card worth RM 1,000.

The HR-V facelift features a new front end – there’s a revised grille, featuring a thicker bar on which the Honda logo sits, along with new reflector-type full-LED headlamps, a reprofiled bumper and LED fog lamps. At the back, there’s a new horizontal chrome link strip on the tailgate.


The refreshed compact crossover will debut a new RS variant. The range-topping version, which premiered in Thailand when the facelift made its debut last month, adds a sportier outlook with darkened contrast elements, including dark chrome door handles, black chrome license garnish and gloss black side sills and black fog lamp garnish.

The variant also comes with 18-inch two-tone five-spoke wheels, the latter larger than those on the Thai-spec HR-V, which rides on 17-inch units. The classier tube-type LED tail lights are also finally making their debut in Malaysia on this model. Seen here is the new Passion Red Pearl paint, which will be offered across the range in Malaysia, rather than being limited to the RS as in Thailand.

The display car interior was blacked-out, but there should be no major changes inside, aside from possible trim and upholstery revisions. What has been confirmed is that the current V model’s reverse camera has now been made standard across the range, which means that all models will almost certainly have a touchscreen infotainment system fitted as well.


In terms of safety, the HR-V now comes as standard with six airbags (previously available only on the top V trim level), emergency stop signal (ESS), vehicle stability assist (VSA) and hill start assist (HSA), with the RS (and possibly other variants as well, from what we’re hearing) also coming with the Honda LaneWatch blind spot camera. However, the City Brake Active System (CTBA) autonomous emergency braking will not be found on the local car.

No change to the powertrain and running gear for the facelift – the 1.8 litre SOHC i-VTEC engine with 142 PS and 172 Nm and CVT gearbox with paddle shifters continues on. It is expected that a HR-V hybrid variant is on the cards at some point.

Cr : Paultan