THE latest British built Honda Civic has been revealed at the Paris Motor Show and its makers claim it will be one of the safest cars in its class.

The athletic, more overtly sporting new bodywork remains trademark Honda, but beneath the sleek lines lie a host of high-tech safety features and driver aids.

This latest generation Civic will raise the bar in its segment when it comes to standard-fit technology, for even the entry level versions will come with the very latest electronic safety wizardry.

Every model will come with Honda's SENSING suite of active safety and driver assist technologies. It uses a combination of radar and camera information, plus a host of high-tech sensors to warn and assist the driver in potentially dangerous scenarios.

Active safety technologies include Collision Mitigation Braking System, Lane Departure Warning, Intelligent Adaptive Cruise Control and Traffic Sign Recognition.

In addition, this new, 10 generation Civic will come with semi-autonomous features including Road Departure Mitigation which uses data from the windscreen-mounted camera to detect whether the car is veering off the road. It then uses the Electric Power Steering to apply subtle corrections to keep the vehicle in its lane, and in certain situations can also apply braking force.

A similar system helps to keep the car in the middle of its lane by detecting road markings and making small steering adjustments to steer the vehicle within the white lines.

This latest Civic is wider, longer, and lower than any of its predecessors and sits on a brand new platform with a new suspension system with MacPherson struts at the front and all-new multi-link suspension set-up at the rear.

It's the first Honda model in Europe to offer the company's one-litre, three-cylinder and 1.5 litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engines which will be available with either a newly-designed six-speed manual transmission or a CVT automatic.

Inside a more spacious interior the new Civic comes with the second-generation of Honda's Connect infotainment and connectivity system, which offers full smartphone integration via both Apple CarPlay® and Android Auto.

This new generation Civic has been the subject of the largest ever model development programme in Honda history and represents a huge boost for post-Brexit Britain.

The Japanese company's plant at Swindon will be the global production hub for the new Civic hatchback and Honda has confirmed investment of £200m in new production technologies and processes there. The investment is part of a long-term vision for the European plant in Honda's global operations, says the company.