The Honda Civic Type R has been taken off sale in the UK ahead of the arrival of an all-new generation in the coming months.
The FK8 iteration of the hot hatchback, which arrived in 2017, no longer appears in Honda’s online configurator or catalogue following the end of production in July.
The Civic Type R was built alongside the standard Civic at Honda’s UK factory in Swindon, production of both coming to an end in summer as the Japanese manufacturer sold the site to a retail company.
Honda has yet to confirm where it will build the next-generation Civic Type R, which is due to be launched in 2022. It builds the new US-market Civic hatchback in Indiana, but UK-bound cars are more likely to come from its factory in Yorii, Japan, which already builds right-hand-drive cars for the domestic market.
In a statement, Honda said: “Type R remains very important to the Honda brand, and we can confirm that next generation Civic Type R will also be launched in Europe. Further details will be provided closer to launch.”
The next Civic Type R is expected to use an upgraded version of the 316bhp turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine that gets the FK8 from 0-62mph in 5.8sec and is good for a top speed of 169mph.
It had earlier been suggested that the next Type R would use a hybrid powertrain similar to the one used in the NSX supercar, which opened up the possibility of four-wheel drive. All previous iterations have been front-wheel-drive only.
Although Honda has announced a plan to make sure all of its European car sales were electrified by 2022, this would only apply to “mainstream” products. The Civic Type R would most likely be safe from this, because it takes only a small portion of sales.
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