Honda plans more hybrids

22 October 2007

Three-year target for hybrids
Two more hybrids to join Civic IMA
New model to cost around £13,500

A hybrid based on this CR-Z concept is on its way

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Honda aims to treble the number of petrol-electric hybrid cars available to UK customers within three years.

Today's four-door Civic IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) model will be joined by something smaller and cheaper, plus a sports car based on the CR-Z concept currently on display at the Tokyo Motor Show.

Hybrids use electric motors to power cars at low speeds in town, and conventional petrol engines when more power is needed on main roads. The petrol engine serves as a generator when slowing down to recharge the battery pack that powers the electric motor.

Honda's new small hybrid will be a unique offering not based on any current or future model.

Although smaller than the Civic IMA, it will still be capable of accommodating a family.

To widen the appeal of hybrids, it is likely to cost from around £13,500 – about the same as a mid-spec petrol small hatchback.

The CR-Z-based sports car is intended to show that hybrids can be fun and glamorous as well as green.

It will be a successor to the sleek, two-seater Insight hybrid that Honda introduced in the late 1990s.

Unlike Toyota and Lexus, who use hybrid technology to lower the COs emissions of larger, more powerful cars, Honda believes hybrids are best suited to smaller, mostly city-based models. They would then spend more of their time running on battery power, helping to cut down CO2.

Honda is developing a range of clean diesel engines for out-of-town use, believing these are more efficient than hybrids at higher speeds.