Honda has unveiled a one-off Civic e:HEV painted in the world's most silver paint to celebrate 25 years since the brand launched Europe's first hybrid model - the Insight - in September 1999.
To celebrate the hybrid's silver anniversary, Honda painted the Civic in a specially made batch of unique silver paint created by renowned artist and color master Stuart Semple. The inventor of the world's Silverest Silver, along with the Pinkest Pink, Goldest Gold and Blackest Black, Semple supplied the paint for the one-off anniversary edition through his studio, Culture Hustle.
World's 'silverest' Honda Civic
With a passion for working with only the finest materials, Stuart creates his paint using 64% real silver flakes and pigments blended in an acrylic suspension. The paint can be applied smoothly to any surface and gives the appearance of solid gold or silver metal, allowing artists to create work that is a true representation of these colors.
Once mixed, the paint was handed over to the custom fabrication specialists at The Syrup Room in Bournemouth, UK, for application to the Civic. Over three days, their team of expert sprayers cleaned and prepared the car's bodywork in carefully controlled conditions before applying several layers of special protective and removable paint. Finally, high-precision spray equipment was used to apply the final layers of Silveriest Silver to create the unique, celebratory Civic.
Honda is now in its fourth calendar decade of producing hybrid vehicles, with the brand's engineers having spent the last quarter century perfecting this type of powertrain, the fruits of which can be seen in the current fully electrified mainstream model range.
The heart of the latest Civic's hybrid system is the e:HEV powertrain, which includes a 2.0-liter direct-injection Atkinson cycle gasoline engine, two compact electric motors, a high-density lithium-ion battery, a power control unit and an Intelligent Power Unit. In addition to the 11th-generation Civic, it is used on models such as the Jazz, HR-V, ZR-V and CR-V.
Source: Honda
