It’s raining freshened-up Honda CR-Vs today, as after the release of the production 2015MY for North America, the Japanese firm has presented the European market model, albeit as a thinly disguised prototype.
If you compare the photos of the two, you’ll see that the changes are trivial as they are limited to the European study’s lowered suspension, sportier wheels, certain matte (instead of glossy) chrome trim accents, a shark fin antenna, and a more compact protection plate on the front bumper.
Other than that, they feature the same visual updates over the pre-facelift CR-V including new headlamps, grille, fog lights, skid-plate and bumper on the business end, and new LED combination lamps, a refreshed tailgate design and bumper on the party end.
There’s big news for the European model under the hood as Honda is replacing the 150PS (148hp) and 350Nm 2.2-litre i-DTEC diesel with a next-generation 1.6-liter i-DTEC unit rated at 160PS (158hp) and 350Nm that emits less than 130g/km of CO2 when fitted with the 6sp manual, an improvement of 11 percent.
The 160PS 1.6L diesel is also offered with a new 9-speed automatic that has CO2 emissions of less than 135g/km, which represents a 20 percent improvement over its predecessor.
Honda will continue to offer a two-wheel drive version of the CR-V with a 120PS (118hp) 1.6-liter i-DTEC diesel with emissions as low as 117 g/km, as well as a 2.0-liter petrol engine in both 2WD and 4WD with manual or automatic transmissions.
The CR-V facelift prototype will be officially revealed at the 2014 Paris Motor Show later this week.
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