Honda News
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Well, that was quick. Just one month after it unveiled the electric Fit EV prototype at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Honda is about to put the first of its electric subcompacts into daily use in southern California. Amusingly, it's in Torrance, where rival automaker and hybrid leader Toyota has its U.S. headquarters. The city of Torrance will receive a Honda Fit EV to test early next year, and then in 2012, a Honda Accord sedan fitted with Honda's new plug-in hybrid powertrain as well. Stanford University and Google will also receive their own Fit EV test cars. In Torrance, the cars will be...
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2011 Detroit Auto Show Preview: New 2012 Honda Civic Concept
News from next month's 2011 Detroit Auto Show is coming in almost daily now. The latest announcement: Honda will present the world debut of a concept car that shows the styling direction of its next--and crucially important--Honda Civic. In reality, this means that the Honda Civic Concept shown in...
John Voelcker -
2011 Honda CR-Z: Determined or Doomed
Sports car and hybrid aren’t two words that have been used together a lot in the alternative fuel segment of the automotive industry—unless you are Honda. The 2011 Honda CR-Z hybrid is the first vehicle we have seen marketed as a sports hybrid and also one of the few offered with a...
Jonathan McGrew -
Report: Honda CR-Z Model To Drop Hybrid Motor, Pick Up Turbo
The 2011 Honda CR-Z hybrid hot-hatch was meant to be the car that showed hybrids could be sporty as well as green, but its paltry 122 horsepower and dismal 0-60 times were never going to excite anyone. And don’t think its fuel economy is anything to write home about; the CR-Z returns 36/38...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Try Again: Honda's Big-Car Hybrid System Has Plug-In Ability
It wasn't even at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, where Honda only showed a video of the new plug-in hybrid platform it only discussed But details of the new powertrain point the way toward a range of future hybrid Honda models. It uses two separate motor-generators, as does Toyota's Hybrid Synergy...
John Voelcker -
Honda Takes The Insight Down A Notch—In Price
Honda has been battling the Toyota Prius popularity pretty much since its introduction and that battle has been an up hill struggle with the Honda Hybrids not gaining much traction in the market. The theory was that was all going to change with the introduction of the all-new Honda Insight for...
Jonathan McGrew -
While the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and Nissan LEAF have stolen most of the green-car limelight of late, and the Toyota Prius continues to be the go-to vehicle for those seeking reliable yet efficient transportation, Honda's Insight continues to plug along, with new upgrades to standard equipment and a less expensive entry-level model for 2011 aimed at improving its competitiveness. The new base model is called, simply enough, the 2011 Honda Insight. Standard features for the $18,950 (including destination fees) base Insight include remote entry and a basic two-speaker CD audio system with cloth...
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Hybrids Don't Cost More To Repair or Run, But Payback Debatable
It's a concern that comes up over and over: If I buy a hybrid car, won't I have to spend thousands of dollars to replace the battery pack in a few years? The answer is, No. Not only are automakers required to warranty the high-voltage battery packs in hybrid-electric vehicles for 8 years/100,000...
John Voelcker -
Honda Unveils Brio, Its Smallest Car, For Asian Markets Only
The smallest Honda sold in the U.S. market is the 2011 Fit subcompact, its well-reviewed and enormously versatile five-door hatchback. But other markets demand different types of cars, and today at the Thailand Motor Expo, the company unveiled the Honda Brio prototype, a lightly disguised version...
John Voelcker -
New Standard Features Come To the 2011 Honda Fit
Recently Honda revealed the pricing for the 2011 Honda Fit and for the most part the car hasn’t changed from the versatile and affordable subcompact that we have come to respect. There are, however, some noteworthy changes, some of them speaking directly to driver and passenger safety. Even...
Jonathan McGrew -
Will Hyundai Hammer Honda In Fight For Greenest Carmaker Title?
For many years, Honda was routinely awarded the title of greenest carmaker in the U.S. market. But its most recent green cars have stumbled, and a dark-horse competitor is rising fast toward taking the coveted title, conferred every few years by the Union of Concerned Scientists. It's not Nissan...
John Voelcker -
2011 Small Cars That Nab the Car and Driver 10Best Awards
It is that time again for Car and Driver’s 10Best car awards. I know, I know why are we reporting on the competition. Well, as happens with great awards, they stick in the industry and become coveted by the participators in the industry. The 10Best is definitely one of those awards for the...
Jonathan McGrew -
Let’s face it: Google loves its green cars. Its also home to some of the best tech-savvy engineers in the world. Engineers who love their tech and love to innovate. So what better way to put a new electric car through its paces than make it part of Google’s GFleet - a pool of cars the Internet search giant makes available for its employees at its Mountain View headquarters in California. That’s exactly what Honda is planning. Less than a week after it unveiled its 2012 electric Fit at the 2010 LA Auto Show, the largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines in the world...
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NHTSA Investigating Honda Accord Hybrid For Unintended Acceleration
Normally it’s Toyota that’s in the headlines whenever ‘unintended acceleration’ is concerned, however, this time ‘round it’s close rival Honda that’s in the spotlight. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it is...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Honda Enters Small Car EV Game With 2012 Honda Fit
The past couple weeks, heck the past couple of hours, have been full of automotive news with the press soaking all of the information in from the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. A lot of the news revolves around the hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) segment. Specifically, we have seen the 2011 Chevrolet...
Jonathan McGrew -
2010 LA Auto Show: 2012 Honda Fit Electric Car, World Debut
This afternoon, Honda unveiled its plans for an all-electric version of the Honda Fit subcompact hatchback to be launched globally in 2012. The announcement came at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. The announcement represented a full circle of sorts, since Los Angeles was the home of many of the 300...
John Voelcker -
How Does A 533 HP 2011 Honda CR-Z Sound?
Really, asking how a 533 HP 2011 Honda CR-Z sounds is a bit of a trick question because before you can answer you have to ask if it is going for economy or speed. Bisimoto’s 2011 Honda CR-Z rocked the SEMA show this year by proving that high horsepower and performance can still have a green...
Jonathan McGrew -
GreenCarReports Best Car To Buy 2011 Nominee: Honda CR-Z
As we noted yesterday, we'll be giving one brand-new 2011 model the GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy Award in conjunction with the Los Angeles Auto Show next week. We'll summarize each of our five nominees, one per day, between now and then. We going down the roster by previewing each nominee...
John Voelcker -
At the start of the year Honda unveiled a concept vehicle previewing a new economy car the company was developing specifically for emerging markets and scheduled for sale in 2011. The concept was the simply titled the Honda New Small Concept and it featured a fairly conventional hatchback design with enough space to seat five. Today Honda has announced plans to debut a new prototype version of the upcoming economy car, which will happen at the end of this month at the 2010 Thailand Motor Expo. The latest vehicle builds on the previous Honda New Small Concept but represents vehicle packaging...
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September 2010 Best Selling Hybrid Top Ten: Ford, Lexus, Nissan and Toyota
There aren’t many of the usual suspects in the automotive industry that don’t have a hybrid vehicle these days. In fact, it is almost getting harder to name all the people who do, which makes those who don’t either forgotten or stick out in side-by-side comparisons. Ever wonder...
Jonathan McGrew -
2010 Los Angeles Auto Show: Honda Electric Car to Make Debut
Honda will jump into the electric-car and plug-in-hybrid fray at the 2010 Los Angeles auto show with a new EV concept. The automaker also confirmed it will lay out the plans for a new plug-in hybrid platform during the L.A. show, which opens to the media on November 17. Honda's entries into the...
Martin Padgett -
First Hydrogen Filling Station In U.S. Opens For Fuel-Cell Cars
Did you notice? Us either. Nonetheless, last week, the first commercial hydrogen filling station in the country was opened in Wallingford, Connecticut, by startup firm SunHydro. The company generates hydrogen onsite using electricity from an array of photovoltaic solar cells that splits apart water...
John Voelcker -
Paris Motor Show: Will Honda Jazz Hybrid Debut Come To U.S.?
For those of you who aren’t aware, the Honda Jazz is the sister car to the U.S. specification Fit. Much like a Acura NSX was a Honda NSX in markets other than the U.S., Honda sells the Fit under the Jazz name in its home market, as well as, other geographies around the world. Recently...
Jonathan McGrew -
Ford, Mazda and Honda Make Best Back-to-School Cars List
Popular Small Cars Make the Exclusive List
Jonathan McGrew