Honda Targets Sales in Japan With Hybrid Freed, New Minivan

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co., Japan’s third- largest carmaker, will start selling a hybrid version of its Freed minivan tomorrow as it seeks to boost sales among domestic consumers looking for more fuel-efficient cars.

The hybrid Freed will start from 2.18 million yen ($28,700), according to a statement by the Tokyo-based company today. The new gas-electric version has a fuel-economy rating of 24 kilometers per liter, compared with 17 kilometers per liter for the conventional gasoline model, according to Honda.

“With the new Freed, we hope to attract the increasing number of ‘downsizers’ in the Japanese market,” Sho Minekawa, a managing officer at Honda, said today at a press conference in Tokyo. “We expect to get half of our sales from hybrid models by the end of March next year.”

The company aims to sell 10,000 units of the Freed hybrid minivan a month, Minekawa said. Honda will begin selling a revamped Insight hybrid starting Nov. 11 from 1.9 million yen and a new minicar from mid-December called the “N Box.”

Honda shares rose 2.75 percent to 2,393 yen at the close of trading in Tokyo. The stock has slid 26 percent this year, compared with a 15 percent drop for the broader Topix index.

--Editors: Chua Kong Ho, Frank Longid

Source;
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-27/honda-targets-sales-in-japan-with-hybrid-freed-new-minivan.html

Honda Cars For 2010 Will Include More Fuel Efficiency For Insight and Civic (Hybrid Odyssey?!?)

You'll want to keep reading to the end of this post (and I've even highlighted it).
Honda cars are entering a new generation of hybrid technologies, which include the 2010 Honda Insight and the Civic. The 2009 Honda Civic is still a great fuel efficient vehicle with proven reliability. Insight has all the new great tools and green technology to provide drivers with accurate fuel efficiency.

Electric cars are growing in higher demand than ever before. Automakers are converting their popular models with new plug in options and hybrid batteries. The industry is changing and the future brings clean energy and fewer carbon emissions.

The Honda Insight is a new fuel-efficient automobile which delivers an MPG rating of 40 in the city and 43 on the highway. It offers 5 doors and seats up to five passengers including the driver. Insight was designed and built from the ground up.

The eco-friendly vehicle also features a new projector-beam headlight which provides better roadway lighting for greater visibility. Insight comes equipped with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) which substitutes the gears found in more traditional transmissions and replaces them with a metal push-belt running between a pair of variable-width pulleys. The CVT includes the Drive-by-Wire throttle system which constantly adjusts to providing the most efficient drive ratio possible depending on the torque load.

Honda Civic Hybrid is powered by a 1.3-liter i-VTEC engine with Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) gasoline-electric hybrid technology to enhance both fuel economy and performance. The car is equipped with a continuously variable transmission. The hybrid vehicle is classified as Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles (AT-PZEV).

The IMA hybrid technology achieves an EPA-estimated city/highway fuel economy of 40/45 miles per gallon. It is also interesting to note that the car can deactivate all four of its cylinders and operate using only the electric motor in certain low-speed cruising situations. The electric motor has 15 kilowatts and can produce a combined 110-horsepower.

The Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System has a 6.5-inch motorized display that opens and closes for access to the internal single-disc CD player. The system also includes a digital audio-card reader that can play MP3 and Windows Media 3 Audio (WMA) files from CompactFlash 4 cards. The navigation system features more than 7 million points of interest and the voice activation can control the navigation menus and the audio system, along with entering city and street names.

Honda is also expected to deliver a new hybrid minivan next year which resembles the Odyssey and the Estima, which are already selling in Japan. The 2010 electric car line-up with hybrid technologies is looking good.

My guess is that this would be for the Japanese market only, but could morph into an eventual Hybrid Stream coming to North America!

Source;
http://www.newsoxy.com/hybrid-cars/2010-honda-insight-civic/article11991.html