Honda e:HEV (e-CVT)

Honda's hybrid transaxle — in the Accord, Civic, CR-V, HR-V, Fit, City and Insight.

It is called an e-CVT and it is not Toyota's e-CVT, which is the distinction this page exists for. There is no planetary power split. Honda's arrangement is two motors and a single lock-up clutch: at low and moderate speed the engine drives a generator and the traction motor drives the wheels — the car is electric and the engine is a generator — and above about motorway speed the clutch closes and connects the engine to the wheels through one fixed ratio.

That produces a symptom that is normal and alarms people: engine speed that does not track road speed at all, rising and holding under acceleration. It is not a slipping transmission, and there is no ratio being searched for; the engine is simply running where it is efficient.

Like Toyota's, it contains no belt, no pulleys and no clutch pack, so the CVT failure literature does not apply. Unlike Toyota's, it has one clutch, and that clutch is the one mechanical wear item — a shudder or a shunt only at the speed where the engine engages is worth distinguishing from anything at lower speed.

What fails is electrical and thermal: the motors, the power control unit, and the coolant loop that serves them. The hybrid coolant service is real maintenance.