WE'RE used to hybrid cars now - the Prius from Toyota is probably best known, although the Honda Insight can lay claim to being the pioneer in combining an electric motor with a petrol engine.

In the green world we inhabit they are making more and more sense to more and more people. Trouble is they look a bit ... ‘mumsy'.  Not the sort of saloon a racy twentysomething might want to be driving - hybrids tend to go more with beards and open sandals (at least bloke-wise).

But it was never going to stay like that for long. And Honda seized the opportunity to break the mould and hatch a coupe with the sort of styling that makes you look at the shape and forget the mechanics beneath that sweeping nose.

The CR-Z could sell on its appearance alone, never mind its green credentials. The model range starts at £16,999 up to £21,749 for the GT Nav version I drove.

A three-door hatchback coupe, it's got rear seats but these are best reserved for a few extra bags. Even kids would grumble at the legroom after a few miles.

However, looked on as mainly a two-seater it is a comfortable, stylishly appointed place to be with more than a dash of high tech about the fascia.

Luggage space is less than you might expect, partly due to the positioning of the nickel-metal hydride battery beneath the boot floor. Nevertheless, it can carry 225 litres of luggage which isn't far behind a Fiesta.

Power comes from a 1.5-litre, 112bhp petrol engine mated to a 14bhp electric motor, so performance is nifty without being neck-jerking, ie 0-62mph in 9.1 seconds and a top speed of 124mph. It's good news for keen drivers that the CVT auto box of the Insight has been dumped in favour of a slick six-speed number which is light to use and makes the most of the power.

You sit low in the CR-Z, so there's an immediate sportiness. This impression is enhanced by the direct steering which has the sort of sharp ‘turn in' on bends that you usually only get on full-on sports cars.

The ride is comfortable and the chassis copes well with direction changes without losing its posture. There's little cornering roll which suits the car's athletic nature.

One of the reasons for buying a hybrid is presumably fuel economy and the CR-Z is given an official combined figure of 56.5mpg with a modest emissions stat of 117g/km.

But real life motoring tells a slightly different story - my average over 500 miles was 44mpg - just marginally better than Autocar's result. This is still impressive economy for a nippy coupe but tends to mirror how ‘enthusiastically' it is punted along.