Bargain price hybrid in works at Honda?

[number001]

Honda to Release World's First Hybrid Subcompact

Nikkei Net Interactive
February 22, 2006

TOKYO -- Honda Motor Co. plans to start selling the hybrid version of its Fit subcompact worldwide as early as fiscal 2007, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Tuesday.

This vehicle stands to become the first hybrid to be priced at less than 2 million yen, as Honda apparently aims to sell it for around 1.4 million yen, about 200,000 yen more than the conventional Fit's price tag. Based on midsize and large vehicles, the hybrid cars currently on the market sell for at least 2 million yen.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s hybrid vehicles are priced about 500,000 yen higher than the gasoline-powered vehicles they are based on. Honda aims to reduce the price difference to less than half by developing a smaller motor and battery.

Honda plans to add the hybrid model when the Fit subcompact is due for full remodeling. The Fit series consists of models with engine displacements ranging between 1.3 and 1.5 liters. For the hybrid version, Honda intends to develop a 1-liter-class engine.

Aside from Honda and Toyota, Ford Motor Co. sells hybrid cars in North America. Toyota, which led the way with the launch of the Prius hybrid in 1997, now offers five hybrid models. Its sales of hybrid cars in 2005 totaled 235,000 units, or 3.2% of its entire vehicle sales.

Honda entered the market in 1999 by rolling out the Insight two-seater hybrid. It now sells the Insight and hybrid versions of the Civic and Accord. Aggregate sales of these three vehicles in 2005 came to 48,000 units, about 1.4% of Honda's overall car sales.

Launched in 2001, global sales of the Fit subcompact totaled 390,000 units in 2005, the third-highest tally among Honda vehicles, following the Accord's 680,000 units and the Civic's 590,000.

The Fit hybrid will likely offer a fuel economy comparable to the Insight's 36km per liter and the Toyota Prius' 35.5km per liter.

Driven by high gasoline prices, demand for hybrid cars has been growing worldwide. The U.S. is the biggest market, with the bulk of all global hybrid car sales made there. Much of the rest are sold in Japan and Europe.

Hybrid Jazz? I thought it was fuel efficient enough already by today's standards.

[Karding]

USDM Hybrid Fit which will sell for only $12,000 and gets a whopping 80mpg

[carlocaraddict]

80mpg?! holy cow!!

[Autobeat]

Wow, so around 34km/liter ito? Oks, so around Php1/km lang gas cost nito.

[baiskee]

wow...tapos magbababaan na presyo ng gas.

[theveed]

Edi ayos, once every 2 months ka nalang magpapafulltank hahaha, maka mas mataas pa oil change cost mo kesa fuel cost.

[orly_andico]

that 80mpg figure is US EPA highway reading, which is at a constant 48mph with no aircon. :P
about 60mpg would be the realistic highway mileage, and Phil. city driving conditions about 40mpg.

so that's 25km/L highway and 17km/L city. both figures of which are readily achievable under realistic conditions by the Hyundai Matrix.

i'm on the alt.autos.toyota newsgroup, and the americans on the group can't figure out why anyone would pay big bucks for a Prius which gets 40-something mpg when a Tercel with a gas engine gets 35-something. Same case here, a difference of 200,000 yen is about $2000. would you buy a Honda Jazz for 900k to get the hybrid technology? potential shocker pa yan pag lumusong ka sa baha.

[ghosthunter]

with any other hybrid car... you can extend the pure electric range simply by installing more batteries.

[mazdamazda]

honda still doesn't get get it.

they should have just shoehorned a small diesel engine to their subcompacts if they want to really save on the overall cost of the vehicle (like how the europeans are doing it right now). notice how this hybrid craze isn't too hot in europe.

people should get over the mpg / fuel consumption reading and also consider the maintenance cost down the line. heck... 8 years from now the cost of the battery replacement might equal the resale value of the car.

[niky]

Actually, it will be interesting to see. What's funny is that Paul Tiglo's already gotten over 100mpg on the Honda City in two fuel economy runs. Except in traffic, the Jazz hybrid may not save much, but I bet we'll see some cool figures if Honda brings a demo unit in.