New Honda Hybrids, More Fuel Efficiency Choices

New Honda Hybrids, More Fuel Efficiency Choices

By John O'Dell May 21, 2008
By Scott Doggett and John O'Dell

Expanding on an ambitious hybrid plan that has been openly talked about for nearly a year now, Honda Motor Co.'s chief executive has confirmed that the company will introduce a new and affordable compact hybrid car early next year and will follow it with at least two other new hybrid models and an improved version of the Civic Hybrid .

One of the new Honda hybrids will be a sporty model based on the CR-Z concept (left) that the company showed in Tokyo last year. The other will be a hybrid version of the subcompact Fit, already a popular gas-sipping member of the Honda lineup as a conventionally powered car.

The company's plans will help broaden the U.S. hybrid market and provide additional fuel-efficient transportation choices for consumers as fuel prices continue climbing and political and economic pressure to reduce oil use grows.

The first of the new hybrids will be, as Honda has long said, a new model that will be sold as a hybrid only -- echoing Toyota Motor Co.'s successful strategy that has helped make the Prius the world's best-selling hybrid.
"It's very clear to see the Prius is a hybrid," Honda CEO and President Takeo Fukui said, complimenting Toyota for its marketing acumen. (Read Inside Line's Honda hybrids piece here.)

The new Honda compact hybrid, as yet unnamed, will be a 5-passenger, 5-door (or hatchback) compact with styling derived from the company's  FCX Clarity fuel-cell electric car (left), Fukui said at Honda's mid-term business meeting in Tokyo. Some auto critics have suggested that the distinctively styled Clarity borrows a few design cues from the Prius.

Separately, Honda's U.S. sales and marketing unit said it will began leasing the hydrogen-powered fuel cell car in three Southern California regions in July. The lease program is limited because American Honda wants to keep the virtually hand-built cars close to available hydrogen fuel stations and to trained technicians at its headquarters near Los Angeles.

While the fuel cell program is still considered experimental, the hybrid expansion is a key part of Honda's global market strategy.

Underscoring its importance, Fukui said that production capacity for Honda's hybrid motor system will be more than tripled by the end of the year, to 250,000 units form 70,000.

The initial new compact model to be launched next year will feature new technology that reduces the size and weight of Honda's hybrid system, increasing fuel economy and reducing cost.
 
An official name for the new model and full product details will be announced later this year, a company spokesman said.

The three-year plan Fukui outlined also includes production innovations and expansion in Japan to cut costs so Honda can stay competitive amid soaring material and energy costs, he said.

"Hybrids have drawn attention for their image, but time has come to go to the next step," he said, stressing that Honda was serious about selling hybrids in significant numbers.

Fukui refused to give the price for the new vehicle., but he said the difference between hybrids and their comparable standard models should be kept at or below 200,000 yen (about $2,000).

That's about half the so-called hybrid premium attached to many present-day models to help pay for the additional powertrain and electronic controls a hybrid requires.

"The 200,000 yen difference is a must," Fukui said.

Although Honda already has developed hybrids – its discontinued 2-seat Insight beat the Prius to market in the U.S. by several months -- it has fallen behind Toyota in the segment.

Toyota has sold more than a million Prius gas-electric hybrid cars worldwide in the past decade and, when its other hybrids are included, has posted overall global sales of 1.46 million gas-electric cars and crossover SUVs. Toyota also makes the Camry Hybrid sedan and three hybrid Lexus luxury vehicles.

In contrast, Honda has sold nearly 262,000 hybrid vehicles worldwide since it launched the Insight in 1999.

Hybrids deliver a cleaner, more fuel-efficient ride than most conventional internal combustion engine cars by switching between a gas engine and an electric motor as conditional dictate and by using regenerative braking system to capture and recycle some of the energy the cars produce while in motion.

Honda said Wednesday that it plans to be selling 500,000 hybrids a year sometime after 2010, half the number Toyota has set as its annual global goal.

Scott Doggett is a regular contributor to Green Car Advisor
John O'Dell is senior editor

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.