We know that Honda Cars Philippines is already preparing to unveil the new-look 2027 Honda City sedan and hatchback soon. Actually, the launch event is happening this Saturday at the Glorietta Activity Center. As much as we want to spill the beans on the new model, like specs and such, the truth is we had to sign a piece of paper during a pre-launch event that precludes us from doing so.

The funny thing is that while that may be true for information disseminated at the event, that isn’t the case for information from other sources. And this time, we went to a Honda dealership because -to our surprise- they already had the new City sedan and City hatchback on display.

Essentially, the new City and City hatchback are both facelifts; actually, this is the second facelift of this generation of Honda City that has been in production since 2019. The fascia has changed based on the photos we took at the dealership, with a new aero bumper, new headlights, new clear taillights, and new wheels. 

Inside, we couldn’t really spot any major changes to trim at the dealership. Maybe there are some minor trim and panel changes to the two RS models, but these would be as minor as can be. The only real change inside is the touchscreen display. We were told by the sales agent that it was indeed larger than the outgoing model at about 10 inches.

What is perhaps the most baffling -and what was lamented by the sales staff- is that there were no changes mechanically. The engine is the same: the 1.5-liter L16ZF i-VTEC 4-cylinder. Honda Cars Philippines again did not opt for the 1.5L e:HEV hybrid model that has been on sale in Thailand since 2020. 

That decision is bizarre, but unsurprising because Honda doesn’t seem to be interested in building a left-hand drive City or City hatchback e:HEV. Honda doesn’t seem to see enough potential for the City and City hatchback as hybrids in the left-hand drive Philippine market. Perhaps it is a chicken-and-egg proposition in the minds of Honda product planners.

So instead, what they will be offering at dealers are ICE-only City and City hatchback models. And prices from the dealer of the 2027 (late 2026) Honda City lineup is as follows:

New Honda City 1.5 E CVT                  PHP 958,000

New Honda City 1.5 RS CVT                PHP 1,178,000

New Honda City 1.5 RS Hatch CVT     PHP 1,238,000

There are also S and V variants of the 4-door sedan, but prices weren’t shared with us. The prices also indicate that Honda has added a cheaper E variant, but the RS 4-door version has a price hike of PHP 40,000, while the RS hatchback had a price hike of PHP 39,000. So that means we can expect the S variant to be around PHP 1,079,000 (current: PHP 1,039,000), while the V variant will be at around PHP 1,123,000 (current: PHP 1,083,000)

Will Honda dealers be able to sell significant numbers of the City without a hybrid and at these prices, given how 2026 has shaped up so far?