It appears car manufacturers are pulling out all the stops with the seemingly endless rise in gas prices. In my last post, I discussed Toyota’s new plug-in Prius. Now, Takeo Fukui, Honda Motor’s president, announced that Honda will be delivering new hybrids to meet market demands (and compete against Toyota’s lead in lucrative hybrid sales). Who will win the hybrid wars you ask? We, as consumers, will all win!
Currently, Honda sells the Civic Hybrid, a hybrid model of its popular entry level Civic sedan. Because the Civic Hybrid is a retrofit of an existing model, it doesn’t see the efficiencies of a pure hybrid like the Prius, and it also is a very high cost, low margin car for Honda to make. Unfortunately, we all know the sad ending for the Honda Accord Hybrid. Honda’s three new hybrid models include a five-door, five-passenger compact based off the concept FCX Clarity, a Fit hybrid, and a two-door coupe hybrid based off the CR-Z. The five-passenger hybrid may hit showroom floors as early as next year, while the other two will probably come out some time in 2010.
Honda’s goal is to come out with a Fit hybrid that has less than a $2,000 premium over the non-hybrid version. As a point of comparison, the Civic Hybrid is nearly $5,000 more expensive than its non-hybrid counterpart. Also, the hybrid-only CR-Z based vehicle is expected to be about one-third cheaper than the Civic Hybrid. Right now, images and additional details such as performance and gas mileage are a bit sketchy, but suffice it to say that Honda is going full steam ahead in the hybrid race. The great part of all this is that we all win as consumers! When it comes time to buy a new car, I look forward to having a hard time choosing among all the various hybrid options that will be available.
Althought I’m not fond of how it looks I think the Toyota Prius is the best deal for the hybrid I’ve seen. The MPG and the price and the interior are amazing!!!!