Honda News
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There's a new plug-in hybrid in town, and it could expand the audience for cars that provide useful electric range for daily driving while retaining an efficient gasoline engine for longer trips. The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid is the third and most important model in the Clarity lineup, which already includes the hydrogen Fuel Cell model as well as a 89-mile battery-electric version. Both those cars are sold in low volumes in California only; the plug-in Clarity will be the high-volume entry, at up to 20,000 sales a year, according to Honda. DON'T MISS: 2018 Honda Clarity full range -...
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Not just Porsche: Honda wants 15-minute fast charges for electric cars too
With Porsche promising ultra-fast charging for its Mission E electric car, Honda isn’t going to let the German automaker keeps its 15 minutes of charging fame. Honda aims to develop cars that can grab enough juice from the grid for 240 kilometers (150 miles) of range in 15 minutes flat...
Mark Stevenson -
When fueling stations shut down for your natural-gas car: one reader's experience
Let's say you buy the greenest car you can, one that uses a different kind of fuel, and drive it happily for several years. What happens when the supply of your fuel suddenly ends, and you can no longer fill up your car? That's just what happened to Duncan Chalmers of Seattle, who can no longer...
John Voelcker -
2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid starts at $34,290 with 47-mile range
The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid will start at a recommended price of $34,290 including delivery, making it the least expensive plug-in hybrid sedan on the market this year. Honda says it will go on sale December 1, and it will be offered at all Honda dealers in the U.S. That means that for...
John Voelcker -
Honda's second electric-car concept is Sports EV coupe unveiled in Tokyo
Following Honda's hit electric-car concept at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Urban EV, the company brought a second all-electric concept to the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show with more sporting intentions. The Honda Sports EV coupe concept debuted one show after the Urban EV concept, and this one's a...
Sean Szymkowski -
2018 Honda Accord Hybrid first drive review: lighter shade of green
It’s easy for the 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid to get lost. Short of small “Hybrid” badges on the front fenders, not much on the car’s exterior says it's powered by electrons. There’s no plug-in variant for now (a role reserved to the Clarity Plug-In sedan), and the latest...
Aaron Cole -
Five months ago, Honda showed a hybrid version of its CR-V compact crossover utility vehicle at the Shanghai auto show. Now, a European version of the Honda CR-V Hybrid is being shown at this week's Frankfurt auto show. Having teased it twice around the world, will the hybrid crossover come to North America too? DON'T MISS: 2018 (?) Honda CR-V Hybrid all but confirmed for U.S. sale after Shanghai debut It seems a pretty likely bet that it will. After the Chinese version appeared in April, Green Car Reports asked Honda directly if it had plans to bring the CR-V Hybrid to the U.S. market. Like...
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Honda Urban EV Concept to go on sale in 2019, but not for North America
If there were a favorite car among journalists and car fans at this week's Frankfurt motor show, it may have been a small, all-electric hatchback city car. Which is pretty remarkable, given the practical, unexciting, utilitarian, slightly nerdy image every non-Tesla electric car seems to carry...
John Voelcker -
2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid rated at 47 miles of range
While there will be three distinct powertrains offered in the Honda Clarity mid-size sedan, most U.S. shoppers will only ever see one of them on sale. That's the plug-in hybrid, which will go on sale "later this year" as the sole Clarity to be offered at all Honda dealers. Now the 2018 Honda...
John Voelcker -
Green car concepts, production models at Frankfurt auto show
Although a handful of automakers have opted to skip the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, there are still plenty of new green concept cars and production models confirmed to make their debut. Leading up to the media days of the 2017 Frankfurt show, we will continue to update this running list of what is...
Sean Szymkowski -
How do you service a hydrogen fuel-cell car at a dealer?
Over the past century, gasoline-powered vehicles have gotten simultaneously more complex and more reliable. Service intervals have lengthened, drivers no longer check a car's fluids daily or weekly, and many new-car owners will never once open the hood. Reliability data shows that some of them...
John Voelcker -
2018 Honda Accord Hybrid: more trunk space, higher fuel economy promised
Over three sporadic model years, the hybrid version of the Honda Accord mid-size sedan has led a peripatetic life. The 2014 and 2015 Accord Hybrid was built in Marysville, Ohio, along with almost all the rest of the Accords sold in North America, its largest market. It skipped 2016 altogether, and...
John Voelcker -
Honda's smallest of vehicles—the Fit hatchback—has received several updates for the new model year, its fourth for the current-generation version. The 2018 Honda Fit now has incremental styling modifications, additional safety features, a new optional audio system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and a Sport model that has been added to the little hatch's lineup. While not a drastic departure, the 2018 Fit's new grille now features a two-piece chrome and piano-black grille, which Honda says flows into the headlights in a more cohesive manner. DON'T MISS: Honda Clarity...
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Electric-car leases in California: Leaf, Volt, Focus vs Clarity
The state of California is undeniably the United States' premier market for electric vehicles. It's also a market where automakers actually need to sell certain volumes of zero-emission cars, which means some of the nation's best lease deals on electric cars can be found in the Golden State. There...
Sean Szymkowski -
2017 Honda Clarity Electric to lease for $269 a month, starting in August
What would you pay to lease a smooth, quiet, comfortable, relatively luxurious mid-size electric sedan with only about 90 miles of range? Honda hopes the answer is $269 a month with $1,730 down, on a three-year lease that takes advantage of the federal income-tax credit for electric-car purchase...
John Voelcker -
Honda Clarity Electric, Plug-In Hybrid: first drives, impressions
In March, we spent most of a day with the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell, the first of three variants of the Clarity mid-size sedan to go on sale in the U.S. Leases of the hydrogen-powered Clarity will be limited for the foreseeable future to residents of those areas of California near to hydrogen fueling...
John Voelcker -
Toyota, Honda, Nissan, other Japan firms to fund hydrogen fueling
Earlier this year in Europe, 13 companies joined forces to create the Hydrogen Council, a global initiative to discuss and promote the use of hydrogen as a renewable source of energy. In the United States, GM and Honda have partnered up to build a production plant in Michigan that will roll out...
John Voelcker -
GM fuel-cell chief talks about military truck, Honda deal to build hydrogen powertrains
Innovation has no secret for GM and after tapping into hybrid and electric engine technologies, fuel-cell is its next target. In an interview with Trucks.com, GM’s global fuel-cell business director Charles Freese seemed confident that hydrogen will become a next big step in transportation...
Green Car Reports -
The 2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell is the only model of Honda's newest sedan presently on sale, though an all-electric version will arrive later this year. The hydrogen-powered mid-size sedan with a rated 366 miles of range is the one that's gotten by far the most publicity from Honda, as its technology halo vehicle. Last month, at the New York auto show, Honda unveiled the second and third models: the all-electric and plug-in hybrid versions that round out the three-car lineup. DON'T MISS: Honda Clarity Electric, Plug-In Hybrid revealed at NY auto show That leads to a handful of questions...
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Honda to launch electric car in China next year too, joining Toyota, reluctantly
While corporate average fuel-economy standards through 2021 remain in place in the U.S., automakers are preparing their case to argue for delays in further tightening. Meanwhile, China is turning the policy screws on automakers operating in the country, telling them they must sell more electric...
John Voelcker -
2018 (?) Honda CR-V Hybrid all but confirmed for U.S. sale after Shanghai debut
It's one of the more frequently asked questions on consumer car sites: why aren't there any hybrid crossover utility vehicles? The Ford Escape Hybrid reigned alone in that segment from 2004 through 2012. Then Ford simply walked away from the segment, replacing it with the underwhelming C-Max Hybrid...
John Voelcker -
Honda Clarity Electric, Plug-In Hybrid sedans revealed at NY auto show
At the New York auto show this morning, Honda revealed the second and third powertrains for its Clarity mid-size sedan, now offered only in California with a hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain. The 2017 Honda Clarity Electric and 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid are powered by a battery pack and a...
John Voelcker -
2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell: first drive of hydrogen-powered sedan
There are now three different vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells on sale in California, and we've driven them all. The 2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell is the first one in which we were able to forget about the powertrain and simply drive. It's the best of the three, although that won't matter...
John Voelcker -
Honda researches high-power electric-car charging, at highway speeds
Even with recent efforts to expand it, electric-car charging infrastructure is nowhere near rivaling the ubiquity of gas stations. But what if electric cars didn't need to stop to charge? That's essentially what a new Honda research project aims to investigate. DON'T MISS: Honda Clarity EV electric...
Stephen Edelstein