Honda to Shrink Alt-Fuel Vehicle Offerings in Short Term

the accord phev thing has me baffled. what are they selling, 5/mo.? is it demand or supply?

 

Thank Dog!

I have wondered when or even if Honda engineering had or was ever going to get a clue.

Bob Wilson

 

"These moves will allow greater focus on Civic's sporty new driving character," Mendel said.

Oy vey...

We once pulled into a parallel parking spot in our previous Civic Hybrid, to discover another Civic Hybrid parked directly behind. I was expecting an eclipse for the rest of the day.

 

The Accord PHEV was for CARB compliance; it only sold in California and New York. With the higher ZEV credits for FCVs, Honda is bringing out a next gen Clarity, or its replacement.

The current Civic hybrid is still IMA, but with lithium ion batteries. The next one will have the new system that's in the Jazz/Fit hybrid. Until then, Honda seems to be focusing on the sporty trims. More profit there, and low gas prices are making hybrids a hard sell. The NA CRZ isn't going to be a hybrid also.

When gas prices rise again, I think Honda will bring back the Civic hybrid, or the Fit one in a sedan or SUV, but not the Fit itself. Which I don't quite get. Guess they don't want to here from outsiders that the Fit hybrid is what they should have sold here instead of the Insight2.

As for the CNG CIvic, there just isn't enough public CNG stations around. Honda stopped recommending the home refilling system when those started letting moisture into the car's tanks. People likely where putting off the expensive annual maintenance for the pump.

 

In fact, 5 is exactly how many they sold in the US last month: May 2015 Dashboard - HybridCars.com.

 

That sounded as the Mirai future...

 

Did CARB give it any recognition?

Bob Wilson

 

"Traditional hybrids are struggling," said John Mendel, executive vice president of Honda's automotive division. "Even the Goliath — the Toyota Prius — is struggling."

Think I gotta change my name. When I hear that, all ll I can think of is that sad feeling, rolled to a red light with the fuel shut off, sitting there, shut down, surrounded by cars idling away, their windows rolled up, everybody running AC, in their little worlds.

 

too bad the accord plug in is gone. i was thinking about replacing the hycam in a couple years if toy doesn't come out with a plug. that leaves only fusion?

 

I've got a problem with the name of that last one.

 

Time is likely why they aren't bringing out a new hybrid Civic, but I think they do have it on their side now. Low gas prices has weaken hybrid sales in general, and even with higher prices, hybrid versions of an ICEV only make up around 10% of that model's sales. So they can wait for the negative impression of the previous Civic hybrid to fade a little, and to ensure their IMA replacement doesn't form problems in the Jazz/Fit.

That hybrid system could be dropped into a Civic. The only concern I have for it is whether it is powerful enough for American tastes in the heavier Civic. If not, how much work is needed for a larger ICE? Then again, the base engine in the new Malibu is a 1.5L turbo, so maybe people will be more accepting of smaller displacements now.

I believe they were counted in some manner for the ZEV program. FCVs are just more bang per vehicle sold though.
Honda not selling to fleets may have actually hurt the CNG Civic. Plenty of private and public organizations use CNG trucks. They got the refueling pumps, and likely would have loved replacing some of their cars with a CNG model. The Crown Vic CNG was only available up to 2005, and converting a gas model may not be as cost effective as converting trucks.

The Accord PHV only had the EV range of the PPI. It's a little more than half of the Fusion Energi's, but it loses as much trunk space as the Fusion.
The CT6 PHV should be out by then. The Sonata PHV comes out next year with about the same EV range as the Fusion.

 

ppi range is all we need. right now, my wife uses mine for local errands. caddy will likely be too expensive. hyundai? wait and see i guess. she gets 46 mpg in the hycam, not willing to give that up. i was just hoping honda would continue down the plug in road. sounds like they are thinking more like toyota.

 

oh joy . . . . another commitment to limited area / low volume / looky-what-we-can-do /compliance cars - strictly built to suck up CARB credits - which will never do anything for reducing non-renewables, nor add true efficiency-volume sales. Thanks Honda. But hey - why should we expect anything different ... Japan wants to saddle the U.S. with the obscene R&D costs ... so they lobby for max hydrogen CARB credits for their experiment. CARB employees know which side of the bread their butter is on, so they do what's expected of them - granting what the FC lobby wants ... and so the hydrogen car builders do exactly what they want to then ... build the minimum number of FC cars necessary to suck up credits, which allows a great offset for the fleet of land barges. It's good to be them.
.

 

sonata is going to have a 9.8 kwh phey also, bmw a 3 series phev 330e, mercedes a c class phey. Honda accord phev had less range than the fusion energi and cost more, not a good combination.

 

no, i was just hoping they would stick with it and make improvements. i would like to avoid german, and wait and see with hyndai i guess.

 

Honda Discontinues Accord Plug-In Hybrid

Hyundai Sonata PHEV Compared To Ford Fusion Energi, Honda Accord Plug -In Hybrid
Details On U.S Rollout Of Hyundai Sonata PHEV

It doesn't sound like much of a loss of the accord phev. Sales were not going to go up at that high price point, and new competition.

Elon Musk: Two-Wheel Drive To Be Standard On Tesla Model 3, AWD An Option

 

model 3 price pegged to 35k, before or after rebates?

 

2wd base getting around 200 mile epa is pegged there before tax credits, but most doubt tesla can actually do it, I'm predicting just under $40K, probably less before tax credits than the accord phev. Tax credits will run out for tesla though, during the model 3 run.