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 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.
American Honda Motor Co., Inc., will recall 36,656 Civic Hybrid vehicles from model years 2006 through 2007 in the U.S. to replace the DC-to-DC converter, a component of the Integrated Motor Assist hybrid control system. The DC-to-DC converter may experience an internal failure that could lead to engine stalling and malfunction of vehicle headlights. No crashes or injuries have been reported in relation to this defect.
Despite its investment in hybrids, electric cars, fuel cell vehicles and the compressed natural gas Civic GX, Honda has earned a reputation for a string of green car missteps. Yet, the company is tenacious—taking a hard study of each shortcoming, and applying those lessons to new and improved green strategies. We spoke with William Walton, manager of product planning for Honda’s lineup of cars from Fit to Accord, to see if Honda might have finally set out on the right course.
When Honda recently unveiled its 2012 Civic design, and announced that the new Civic Hybrid would use lithium ion batteries for the first time, we weren’t surprised. Last March, we reported that the Civic and other Honda hybrids were already in the process of migrating from nickel to lithium. What does it mean for consumers? In theory, more MPG at a lower cost—and hopefully putting some of the Civic Hybrid's battery problems in the past.
Last week, we reported that Honda finally acknowledged a problem with the batteries of the Honda Civic Hybrid by issuing a “technical service bulletin.” This comes after one year of complaints—more than 100 on the HybridCars.com forum alone—about diminished fuel economy and power after a year or two driving, especially in hot weather conditions. As the first set of Honda Civic Hybrids receive the software update, the results reported in our forums are mixed.
Bloomberg reported today that Honda will fix a software flaw in about 90,000 Civic Hybrids sold in the U.S. that can cause their batteries to wear out sooner than expected. For the past year, issues related to the Civic Hybrid battery have been discussed by numerous owners in the HybridCars.com Civic Hybrid forum.
It’s easy to look nostalgically at the Sprint, Metro, CRX and Suzuki Swift, and view that generation as some sort of heyday of fuel efficiency. But using a rose-colored rear view mirror has a blind spot: Those cars lacked most of the comfort, convenience and safety features—from power steering to automatic transmissions—that today’s car buyers see as absolutely essential.
While the high cost of next generation lithium ion batteries is viewed as an obstacle to adoption of pure electric cars, lithium might be the key to making conventional hybrids more affordable. Bloomberg reported today that Honda—which has focused its hybrid marketing strategy on making hybrids nearly as affordable as gas-powered cars—is swiftly moving to put lithium batteries in the Civic Hybrid and its other hybrids.
John DeCicco, an expert on automotive eco-ratings, reflects on the lawsuit brought against Honda by Civic Hybrid owners who are disgruntled with their MPG. And he digs up detailed mileage logs of his Civic Hybrid and conventional Honda Civic.
In March 2007, two Honda Civic Hybrid owners filed a class action lawsuit against Honda because their cars were averaging 31 miles per gallon—well below the advertised 49 mpg in the city and 51 mpg on the highway. The news this week that Honda offered to settle the suit has done little to resolve the case, or the larger problem of Environmental Protection Agency window stickers commonly overstating real world mileage.
Entire history books could one day be devoted to the auto industry’s seismic shift in 2008. Yet, the May sales numbers tell the whole story.
The federal tax credit for buying Honda hybrid vehicles will begin to phase out at the end of this year. The hybrid credit, designed to motivate sales of fuel-efficient, eco-friendly cars, stays in effect until an automaker sells a total of 60,000 hybrids. Once that limit is reached, the tax incentive is phased out over the following year, until the credit is no longer available for a specific carmaker.
Honda won't be making any more of its iconic Insight, but plans are in the works for further green innovations.
