22/05/08

Honda announces a new compact hybrid

The design will be based on the FCX concept and the hybrid powertrain will be smaller then the Civic's

Fotogallery As previously announced, Honda’s new small hybrid car will be available early in 2009 and will be paired up with the Civic. At the moment its name is top secret though there are enough details which enable us to have a picture of what it will be like. It will be a 5 door compact car whose design, according to Honda’s own information, is based on the FCX concept.

The power to drive it will be supplied by a combustion engine assisted by a hybrid Ima (Integrated Motor Assist) system, which has been totally revised and upgraded by reducing its weight as well as the components’. Both the batteries and the management central unit will be located under the trunk, thus leaving the loading capacity unaltered.

In addition to that, a special device, which affects the driving style, will enable the car to further reduce fuel consumption. Besides, the Japanese engineers claim that the cost for the new hybrid system has lowered. The cars will be made in the Suzuka facility, where the Civic Ima is assembled, a factory which, thanks to its huge investments, will increase the production from the present 70 thousand units to 250 thousand.

There are further figures to confirm Honda’s ambitious plans: the annual sale target for the new hybrid aims at 200 thousand units, half of them in the USA. And that’s not all, actually,in two years’ time the Japanese automaker will launch one more hybrid, but a sports one in this case, based on the CR-Z prototype exhibited for the first at the latest Tokyo Motor Show.