Honda hybrids

[nerfer]

Does anything know more about this? I got the following teaser info at
leftlanenews, which talks first about the Fit (another article says 2 million Fit/Jazz sold in the last 6 years worldwide), and then diesels:
<blockquote>"But Honda is not focusing entirely on diesel engines; the automaker will introduce a hybrid-specific model in '09 that's expected to cost less than the current Civic Hybrid.

Honda is taking a page from the Toyota Prius handbook of hybrids by introducing a mass-market model designed solely as a hybrid. Honda was the first to sell a hybrid in North America when it introduced the Insight, but that model's compact, two-seat design made it hard to sell to a wide variety of buyers. Honda says that the new car will cost less than the Civic Hybrid, which currently stickers around $22,000 in the United States."</blockquote>

[MSantos]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nerfer @ Jul 24 2007, 01:20 PM) [snapback]484257[/snapback]</div>

Does anything know more about this? I got the following teaser info at
leftlanenews, which talks first about the Fit (another article says 2 million Fit/Jazz sold in the last 6 years worldwide), and then diesels:
<blockquote>"But Honda is not focusing entirely on diesel engines; the automaker will introduce a hybrid-specific model in '09 that's expected to cost less than the current Civic Hybrid.

Honda is taking a page from the Toyota Prius handbook of hybrids by introducing a mass-market model designed solely as a hybrid. Honda was the first to sell a hybrid in North America when it introduced the Insight, but that model's compact, two-seat design made it hard to sell to a wide variety of buyers. Honda says that the new car will cost less than the Civic Hybrid, which currently stickers around $22,000 in the United States."</blockquote>
[/b]

It is nothing special.

The new dedicated hybrid is expected to have an initial annual production of 200,000 units (the current Civic Hybrid is limited to 38,000 due limited production capacity at Suzuka) and will inherit the bulk of the functionality of the IMA Gen 4 used in the HCH-II (including the EV-only capability).
It will be a four door vehicle that is a tad smaller than the HCH-2 and will consequently be cheaper as well.
It will coexist with the HCH-II because it is smaller and Honda is selling all the HCH-II's it makes currently with 4-6 week waiting lists.

MSantos