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HONDA: NEW CIVIC HYBRID WILL OUTRUN PRIUS
USA Today
July 7, 2007

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-07-05-honda_x.htm

TOKYO ‹ Honda has developed an improved gas-and-electric engine for the
Civic compact set to go on sale this fall, the Japanese automaker said
Tuesday.

With global sales of nearly 600,000 units a year, the Civic is Honda's
best-selling model after the Accord, and the remodeled version is widely
expected to generate big sales gains for Japan's third-biggest automaker.

Honda Motor said a specific mileage estimate for the new hybrid system would
not be provided until later this year, but said it's about 5% better than
current Civic hybrid cars, which delivers about 51 miles per gallon under
U.S. highway conditions.

Honda said the improved i-VTEC (intelligent Variable Valve Timing and Lift
Electronic Control System) technology ‹ which helps engines burn fuel more
efficiently while enhancing driving performance ‹ would raise the engine's
fuel economy 6% in the new gasoline-only Civic.

Honda also developed a more powerful, fuel-efficient hybrid system that
would enable its gasoline-electric vehicles to run solely on the electric
motor at low cruising speeds for the first time, like Toyota Motor's popular
Prius sedan.

The new system is smaller, lighter and costs up to 30% less than the
existing version, a Honda engineer said.

Company officials, briefing reporters at Honda's Tokyo headquarters, also
said the new Civic will offer better fuel efficiency than the Prius.

Hybrids offer better mileage and reduce pollution and global warming by
switching between a gas engine and electric motor.

Honda has long been at the forefront of "green" powertrain technology,
perhaps most famously with the development in 1973 of the CVCC (Compound
Vortex Controlled Combustion) engine ‹ the world's first to meet U.S. Clean
Air Act requirements without a catalytic converter, and which gave the
popular Civic its name.

Honda's cars and trucks in the United States, its biggest market, can on
average run 29.0 miles on a gallon of gasoline ‹ above the industry's 24.6
mpg ‹ and its vehicles emits half the industry's average level of
smog-forming pollutants.

Honda's ranking as one of the world's most fuel-efficient car brands is
mainly due to its widespread use of environmentally friendly gasoline-engine
technology, and that trend will continue despite the development of an
improved hybrid system, an executive said.

"The most meaningful way to raise the fleet's overall performance and
efficiency is to make new technologies like this available on a wide range
of vehicles," Motoatsu Shiraishi, senior managing director and head of
Honda's R&D unit, told reporters.

"We intend to use this technology on all vehicles that share the Civic
powertrain eventually," he said.

David Friedman, research director of the Union of Concerned Scientists'
Clean Vehicles Program, said Honda could raise its fleet's mileage to 40 mpg
within 10 years purely through the widespread use of existing technology ‹
even excluding gasoline-electric hybrids.

"When it comes to global warming, the industry overall is a bit of a
dinosaur," he said in a telephone interview. "Clearly, Honda is a better
dinosaur but they're still doing poorly compared to their potential."

Besides the Prius, Toyota has introduced other hybrids and is planning more.
Honda already has developed hybrid versions of its Civic and Accord sedans
and makes a hybrid called Insight.

Ford Motor has said hybrid versions of its upcoming Ford Fusion and Mercury
Milan sedans will be on the road within three years, and it has already
introduced the Escape SUV hybrid. General Motors is planning to introduce a
hybrid Chevrolet Malibu in 2008.

Although hybrids represent a tiny portion of auto sales ‹ less than 1% of
U.S. auto sales last year ‹ their popularity is growing especially as gas
prices have soared in recent years.

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Published by David Sunfellow
NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE)
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