Posted on Monday 18 February 2008
Although Honda was first to the mass-market with its Insight hybrid in the U.S., the tiny form-factor made it less than practical for most buyers. Consequently, Toyota’s Prius ran off with the hybrid crown when it came along with seating for five. The Honda Civic hybrid has been making some inroads, but its similar price and slightly lower efficiency have held it back. Now Honda’s going back to the small-hybrid idea with its global hybrid concept.
Expected to go on sale in 2009, the new hybrid will be smaller than the civic, and will cost roughly two-thirds as much. In Europe, that will translate to a price of €16,000 to €20,000 compared to the Civic Hybrid’s starting price of €23,800. Honda hopes to bring sales of hybrids up to a full 10 percent of total car sales by 2010, and this new small hybrid should account for 200,000 units annually. Half of the new car’s production will be sent to the U.S., a quarter to Europe with the rest to be divided amongst the remainder of the globe.
Those sales goals are somewhat optimistic, considering combined sales of Toyota’s Prius and the Civic Hybrid barely topped 42,000 cars in 2007, according to Automotive News. However its lower price, the increasing popularity of hybrids, stricter emissions laws and the likelihood of more congestion charges like London’s recently enacted £25 daily fee, 50,000 units may not be so far from the mark. The new smaller hybrid has a possible goal of sliding under the 100g/km CO2 mark. That figure equates to a combined cycle fuel efficiency of 4.2L/100km, or 56mpg US/67mpg Imperial.
Honda envisions the small global hybrid as part of a three-car range starting with the newest addition, with the Civic Hybrid in the middle and topped with a new hybrid based on the CR-Z concept (pictured). A company spokesman says all three models will be on sale by 2011, and the company expects hybrids to account for 400,000 to 500,000 of the company’s sales each year.
You guys really need to check your facts, Honda was NOT first to market with a hybrid, Toyota WAS!
Toyota came out with the Prius in 1997 in Japan, roughly 2 years before Honda came out with the Insight.
STOP giving Honda credit where it’s not deserved, and start giving credit where credit is due.
We should have clarified that Honda was first to market hybrids in more global markets including the U.S., which arguably is the most important markets for hybrid vehicles. You are correct that Toyota launched the first hybrid in Japan more than a decade ago. In fact we did a story about the original Prius engineers celebrating the ten year milestone last year, which you can read by following the link below:
http://www.motorauthority.com/cars/toyota/toyota-engineers-reflect-ahead-of-prius%E2%80%99-10th-birthday/
You are correct Honda was first to market in the US by a few months. The difference is Toyota pushed hard with Prius development while Honda never really put much effort into updating the Insight.
The Honda Insight creates 81 g/km CO2 compared to about 114 g/km for the Prius, so maybe Honda have not been pushing hard with development since they were right at the forefront, alongside VW with the VW Lupo 3L TDI which also emits 81 g/km.
Toyota were sued by Antonov PLC in a Duesseldorf court for using Antonov’s hybrid patent. Antonov won the case and Toyota subsequently got the Antonov hybrid patent revoked by a decision in a Munich court.That still leaves Toyota making the Prius and selling in worldwide and Antonov owning the patent to the hybrid’s transmission in many countries, but lacking the finances to defend its patent against Toyota in the rest of the world.
Toyota seem to have a good strong legal team. I remember reading about the problems with the Miss Lexus porn site, and a female employee sexual harassment case. They seem to have dealt with the non-payment of licence fees to Antonov and these other leal disputes quite effectively, without damaging the Toyota brand name.
I read a report that the overall emissions from the Prius were worse than that of a Hummer when the lifetime expected milage of the vehicle was considered, together with pollution from manufacture and disposal, etc.
I think the whole issue of efficiency well to wheels and molten metal back to molten metal again is difficult to ascertain. That is something that should be argued across the whole fleet anyway, and not just one model versus another. Since the aim is to reduce fue usage in the future, it is the cheaper simpler solution that wll win out. Of the two of them, Toyota and Honda, it currently that looks like Honda have the better solution.
crystal… the industrial cleanliness of manufacturing cars will never be considered because if it was, the american media would have to admit that FORD is one of, if not THE cleanest companies for industrial waste, energy (of production) efficiency, etc.
ford’s f-150 plant in dearborn is the largest green roof in the world.
ford has pioneered methods to reduce the use of petroleum products in all of their plastics and foam (as reported ON THIS SITE).
in windsor, ford used to have 6 plants, 2 of which were sold to nemak 10 years ago and the steel foundry just recently closed, but ford here had a power plant that supplied power to all of these plants. the power plant is one of the most efficient types: natural gas turbine / steam co-gen.
…..ford also has a carbon offset program.
but because they make a damned good truck and everyone buy’s F-150’s (the best selling vehicle in north america, and maybe the world, year after year, for 20 something years running)… everyone looks at ford as this oil spewing pig.
fact is, cars are dirty. products in general are dirty.
I read about the report that says a Prius is worse for the environment than a Hummer over it’s lifetime also. But that report has been discredited so many times it’s not even funny.