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[HCDATE] The first of Honda's electric hatchbacks has officially been delivered to the city of Torrance, California. Honda delivered a single Fit EV to the city of Torrance on Friday as the first step in the Honda Electric Vehicle Demonstration Program, a prelude to the "retail market launch" of the Fit EV to customers (actually, only to lessees) in California and Oregon starting this summer.
Unveiled at the ongoing Detroit Auto Show, the Acura NSX Sport Hybrid Concept has been said by Honda to be slated for Ohio production within the next three years.
As you might guess, an all-wheel-drive supercar like this is not aimed at dethroning the Prius.
Instead, it intends to provide balanced high performance with enough environmental consciousness to not turn buyers away in this decade’s greening marketplace.
“In this new era, even as we focus on the fun to drive spirit of the NSX, I think a supercar must respond positively to environmental responsibilities,” said Honda’s President and CEO Takanobu Ito.
Honda Motor Co. has confirmed it will bring back the Acura NSX as an efficient but powerful hybridized challenger to larger displacement conventional supercars.
People are speculating what it will look like, and short of an artist's rendition, we're showing an earlier NSX above, but greater clarity will be offered this January at the Detroit auto show when the NSX concept is revealed.
Some eco-minded people may not care that an uber-powerful and likely uber-expensive car will be launched, but it does send a signal that Honda is going greener even with its most conspicuous car.
Also potentially positive is the market forecasters at Honda think the economy is approaching a time to make such a project worthwhile. The original NSX was canceled after a 15 year run in 2005. Plans to launch a new concept were scrapped after the autumn 2008 Lehman Brothers failure.
Beyond the concepts, Honda president Takanobu Ito's message to reporters at Tokyo this year was focused on the near term, namely the period between model year 2012 and 2020―by which time Honda has pledged to reduce average emissions of its vehicles by 30 percent.
Today Honda Motor Company announced it will release refreshed Insight hybrids including a somewhat more upscale version with larger engine to the Japanese market.
The 1.3-liter 40-plus mpg version will be joined by a 1.5-liter model Honda is calling the Insight Exclusive, and the company says dealers will get them Nov. 11.
No word was given whether these tweaked models will find their way to the U.S., but it’s certainly possible.
Honda has announced several small but noticeable tweaks for the 2012 editions of its Insight hybrid. But will these changes bring the Insight any closer living up to its billing as a “Prius fighter?”
Next month a Wisconsin Toyota dealer hopes to post a new record for putting on the world’s longest hybrid parade featuring as many as 500 hybrid vehicles. Any make or model of production hybrid will be welcome at the Hybrids on Parade (HOP) event, being sponsored Sunday, July 24, by Smart Motors of Madison. The goal is to actually be recorded as a new Guinness World Record™ for longest hybrid vehicle parade.
The most maligned hybrid on the market today is the Honda CR-Z. It comes down to false expectations. Take one look at the sporty design of the coupe, and you might expect it to be a rip-roaring fast automobile. The people who complain most about the CR-Z—as if it’s some kind of personal attack on their worldview—say the same old thing over and over again: “It’s nor fast enough, nor fuel efficient enough.” But they’re looking at the wrong cues for an understanding of the car, and therefore miss the charms and benefits of the Honda CR-Z.
The new 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid, using a lithium ion battery for the first time, increased its average EPA fuel economy rating from 41 mpg to 44 mpg. The new model is rated at 44 in both city and highway driving. HybridCars.com, using hypermiling techniques, achieved the upper limit of what any driver should ever expect for fuel efficiency—a score of 68.7 mpg on a 10-mile course of mostly country lanes and some highway driving, with four or five stoplights along the way.
With average oil prices climbing ever closer to the $4 per gallon, momentum behind the newly updated NAT GAS Act is said to be growing in Washington.
