Honda has yet to make an official announcement, but rumors are flying all over the news that Honda will begin producing a low-cost hybrid car as early as next year.
Honda Motor Co. plans to sell a low-cost hybrid car, a version of
its popular Fit subcompact, a Japanese daily reported, signaling the
auto maker’s long-term commitment to the fuel-sipping powertrain.Japan’s third-biggest auto maker aims to sell the Fit hybrid as
early as next year for around ¥1.4 million ($11,790), or about ¥200,000
more than the gasoline-only version, likely making it the world’s first
hybrid to cost less than ¥2 million ($16,840), the leading Japanese
business daily said Wednesday.The model could be launched in the business year starting April 2007 and would be sold globally, the paper said.
A spokesman denied Honda had made any decision on whether to
hybridize the Fit, but added it had the technological wherewithal to
mount its hybrid system, which twins an electric motor and a
conventional engine to save fuel, on most of its vehicles.Chief Executive Takeo Fukui has long said the price premium for a
hybrid over a gasoline-only car needs to fall below ¥200,000 ($1,680)
for the powertrain to go mainstream.
This can only help Mother Earth with all the pollution problems we’ve been having (though not as much as any reasonable person would like). To-date the only people driving hybrids in large numbers are the hippie types with money to spend, and people who commute in a city such as Washington, DC, where they get to use the HOV lane without passengers if they drive a hybrid, fuel-efficient car. People who currently drive Audis and BMWs instead of hybrid Honda Accords will undoubtedly continue to do so, but for the first time people in the market for inexpensive automobiles will be able to purchase hybrids (a reduction of $4,000 on a previously $17,000 car type is nearly a savings of 25%). Moreover they will have plenty of purely financial incentive to do "go hybrid": the rising cost of petrol and the $2,000 tax rebate will make the Fit hybrid at $12,000 a better deal than any other car over $10,000 (and perhaps lower than that with gasoline costs figured into the equation).
Accidental Blogger 
3 responses to “Saving money for less money with Honda”
Will you take one of these to law school next year?
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This news sparked conversation in our household as well. I bought a new car last fall, and considered getting a hybrid, but held out, partly because of the cost of available options. Even post-Honda, however, I might still hold out. Though I have no particular engineering or economist’s creds to back me up, I can’t help feeling that this is still a fledgling technology in which the options five years down the line will be much better.
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I wish. I don’t so much have $12,000 to buy a new car of any sort. My next car purchase, though, is definitely going to be a hybrid–I believe that although the technology will keep improving, what we’ve got now is good enough. That the problems of when it was brand new don’t exist anymore. (Of course that’s just an uninformed opinion; I haven’t done actual research on the cars.)
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