You weren’t supposed to see it until February 18.
The 2022 HR-V’s teaser campaign is in full swing, but someone has decided to mess around with Honda’s plan by sharing fully revealing images of the redesigned small crossover. Published on Facebook by someone who calls himself a “Certified Googler,” this set of patent images seemingly shows the new global version of the HR-V (Vezel in Japan). Side note – North America will be getting its own flavor of the CUV.
Why do we think it’s the HR-V and not some other crossover? Well, the person who discovered the images says the trademark belongs to Honda. Ok, taking for granted what a complete stranger says on the Internet is something we never do here at Motor1.com, but we think we have solid proof the grayscale images do indeed depict the next-generation HR-V.
As shown in the side-by-side comparison above, the rear quarter design appears to be virtually identical. From the high-mounted door handle to the placement of the fuel cap, the details seem to be exactly the same. We dimmed the lights of the official teaser provided by Honda in an attempt to unlock more design details and compare them to the alleged 2022 HR-V patent images.
The adjacent drawings are also in line with the camouflaged prototypes our spies caught at the beginning of the year, showing an identical placement of the headlights with upper-mounted LED DRLs. The outline of the hood matches that of the hidden vehicles, and so does the placement of the side mirrors.
Honda will reveal its new subcompact crossover on February 18 for JDM and global markets. It’s unclear when the North American spec version will be unveiled, but the automaker has said it’s been “designed to meet the distinct needs of U.S. customers, and will differ from the Honda Vezel / HR-V that will be introduced in other regions.”
Given how old the outgoing second-generation model is – launched more than seven years ago – we’re thinking the US-spec HR-V will arrive for the 2022 model year. If our assumption is correct, an official premiere should take place in the latter half of 2021, possibly towards the end of the year.
Source:
Vanhoe Rage / Facebook via Autocar India
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