#35 Honda Strikes Back

Go Hypermiling Podcast

Type: Audio
Hosts: Kacey Green, Manuel Santos and Wayen Gerdes
Recorded: March 21, 2010
Music: Time of Day by the Clintons
Runtime: 33 min : 14 sec
Moderating: Kacey Green
Technique: Steady State Driving Styles
Main Topics: Honda narrows Prius lead with Li-Ion’s | 18-wheeler caught on video with car attached to front bumer at 60 mph | CR-Z is hot in Japan
Sponsors: CleanMPG, Hybrid Canada, & Midlands Hybrid | Enginer PHEV kits, Midlands Honda, & CleanMPG Scangauges

 Our Technique segment is how to maintain high fuel economy during a somewhat steady state driving scenerio.

General discussion on how to handle the long road ahead.  

Honda narrows Prius lead with Li-Ion’s

Can snazzier batteries jump-start Honda’s hybrid sales? The Honda Civic Hybrid is planning to switch to lithium-ion batteries in a bid to make it more competitive with the embattled Toyota Prius (which has the lion’s share of the hybrid market).

Li-ion is, of course, the default battery for nearly all the world’s coming plug-in EVs, and it has by far the greatest energy density of any available chemistry. Hybridcars.com reports that li-ion packs could even be cheaper than the nickel-metal packs standard in hybrids today.

While not the biggest deal in the world, it’s still very significant—the only hybrid to use li-ion right now is the Mercedes S400, and that’s in a whole other price category. Bloomberg got its scoop, as it often does, from its Japanese reporters (Makkio Kitamura and Yuki Hagiwara). Honda Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo told them in a Tokyo interview that the Civic Hybrid would have li-ion within the next two to three years. “Lithium will become a lot more prevalent,” he said.

Honda’s li-ion plans hadn’t made it to this side of the world. A U.S.-based Honda spokesman told me, “I suspect you read the same story I did. That’s the first I’d heard of it and now you and I know the same very limited amount. It is way too soon to disclose details of any kind regarding the next-generation Civic, and I assure you that would be the answer provided by anyone (PR or executive) in North America.” 

Honda18-wheeler on video with car stuck to the front bumer at 60 + mph

A Truck driver was videoed in this once in a lifetime sequence.

An unaware truck driver was captured on video going driving along without a care in the world at 60 + mph while a car was stuck sideways to the front bumper. He even passed a car whose occupants had the forethought to begin filming using their mobile phone.

The Renault Clio got trapped (no cause of the accident has been released yet) and even more outrageous, how did the truck driver not realize he was pushing this poor guy and his Renault along at 60 + mph?

Miraculously, the car’s driver was not hurt.

In the video, taken on the A1(M) near Wetherby, West Yorks, a passenger shouts: “He hasn’t seen it!”

Eventually, the truck driver did stop and the Renault driver got out unharmed.

The source of the film said they had been “inundated” with calls since the story broke…. Imagine that???  

 Honda CR-Z hot in Japan 

Honda can’t afford another hybrid failure. After lackluster sales of the newly redesigned Insight, Honda needs a hit in the hybrid segment. They are hopeful that the upcoming CR-Z can garner sales success and be a hit here in the States, but the outlook is uncertain. Whether or not the CR-Z will be a sale success or flop here remains to be seen, but the new hybrid is hot in Japan.

The CR-Z has been on sale in Japan for 3 weeks now and Honda has taken more than 8,000 orders. Honda had expected to sell only 12,000 units in the first year in Japan, so they are more than halfway there. Remember, the Insight was initially a hot vehicle in Japan as well, but its success did not carry over to the US. 

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Wayne Gerdes
Go Hypermiling! 
“Hypermiling in today’s world”

#35: Honda Strikes Back - Go Hypermiling!