Honda prepares to launch new hybrid technology

Plenty of people think Honda Motor Co is not the kind of daring, risk-taking company it once was. One of them is Takanobu Ito, who just happens to be the Japanese automaker's chief executive.

His solution? A simple, gasoline-electric hybrid technology which he believes will set a new standard for fuel efficiency and recapture the success of the CVCC engine 40 years ago, which helped transform Honda from a small company into a global leader.

Carmakers, battling to stand out in an industry hammered by over-capacity and weak demand, are looking for an optimum balance of gasoline and electricity to propel cars after Toyota Motor Corp's triumph with the Prius hybrid.

Initially tentative in embracing the technology, Honda believes it has found the right formula with a revamped version of its "one motor" hybrid system.

"We believe we have reached a point with hybrid technology ... where we can provide game-changing technology and products," Ito told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We believe that rivals will definitely follow us."

Honda's new hybrid system will power the next generation of its cars and could be introduced in the remodelled Fit subcompact car by late 2013 in Japan, according to people close to the company.

Honda introduced its "one motor" hybrid system in 1999. It is currently used in models including the CR-Z compact sports car and the Fit subcompact, also known as the Jazz.

RECAPTURING FORMER GLORIES

Since becoming chief executive in 2009, the 59-year-old Ito has pushed Honda to come up with its own hybrid technology and repeat the successes of its hard-driving founder.

Soichiro Honda championed advances such as fuel-efficient CVCC engines with cleaner tailpipe emissions in the 1970s, and saw them adopted by carmakers including Toyota, Ford and Chrysler.

Honda needs that kind of a booster again.

It is now counting on the new Accord mid-sized car, its core model for the U.S. market which was launched there this month. Ito said the car's engine, transmission and platform have all undergone improvements.

Ito also sees the next Fit series as key to improving the company's performance. For the North American market, the Fit will be built in Mexico and will go on sale in the spring of 2014, sources close to the firm said.

Developing new technologies is costly and Honda, which spends about 500 billion yen ($6.4 billion) in R&D annually, does not rule out alliances.

"We absolutely won't reject an alliance if we can work together with another company in a way that leads to our customers being more impressed with Honda's products," Ito said.

"But if we are just going to put onto our product an advanced technology that another company has developed, then Honda engineers will be deprived of the joy of involvement, so that is not the way to go."

-Courtesy of NY Daily News

Be a TailGator at Honda of Gainesville!

We know that the Gator Nation wants to be at Florida Field every Saturday or at an NFL stadium each Sunday...but if you can't be at the game, then come by Honda of Gainesville and tailgate party with us!

Every Saturday and Sunday during the fall, Honda of Gainesville is going all-out to tailgate like a superstar. That means free refreshments for our
neighbors, friends and customers, three big-screen TV's set up for
the games and more! So come on down to Honda of Gainesville every
weekend during football season and root your favorite team to victory!
Honda of Gainesville. Your dealer. Your town.

Here's the 2012 Florida Gators' Football Schedule

9/1 vs. Bowling Green
9/8 @ Texas A&M
9/15 @ Tennessee
9/22 vs. Kentucky
10/6 vs. LSU
10/13 @ Vanderbilt
10/20 vs. South Carolina
10/27 vs. Georgia (Jacksonville)
11/3 vs. Missouri
11/10 vs. UL-Lafayette (Homecoming)
11/17 vs. Jacksonville State
11/24 @ Florida State

Be a TailGator at Honda of Gainesville!

We know that the Gator Nation wants to be at Florida Field every Saturday or at an NFL stadium each Sunday...but if you can't be at the game, then come by Honda of Gainesville and tailgate party with us!

Every Saturday and Sunday during the fall, Honda of Gainesville is going all-out to tailgate like a superstar. That means free refreshments for our
neighbors, friends and customers, three big-screen TV's set up for
the games and more! So come on down to Honda of Gainesville every
weekend during football season and root your favorite team to victory!
Honda of Gainesville. Your dealer. Your town.

Here's the 2012 Florida Gators' Football Schedule

9/1 vs. Bowling Green
9/8 @ Texas A&M
9/15 @ Tennessee
9/22 vs. Kentucky
10/6 vs. LSU
10/13 @ Vanderbilt
10/20 vs. South Carolina
10/27 vs. Georgia (Jacksonville)
11/3 vs. Missouri
11/10 vs. UL-Lafayette (Homecoming)
11/17 vs. Jacksonville State
11/24 @ Florida State

Honda Accord plug-in hybrid review: Like the Chevy Volt, only normal

Think of the new Honda Accord PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) as a Chevrolet Volt in disguise, one that recharges in just an hour. The Volt shouts “different” to the neighbors while the Accord plug-in whispers its differences compared to conventional Volts and Toyota Priuses. If you want your PHEV to announce itself, Honda isn’t playing the self-gratification game. That’s a challenge in a country where most people don’t drop a dollar in the barista’s tip jar until she’s watching. For what may be sound engineering and cost reasons, the Accord runs 10-15 miles on battery power while the Volt goes 30-35. All this adds up to a roomy, comfortable car for 4-5 that will be in need of practical-minded buyers. The Accord PHEV looks the same as the 350,000 other new Accords likely to be bought in the US in 2013. As public recharging stations take hold, the Accord PHEV’s quick charge time may turn into a significant advantage. It will probably cost around $35,000 when it goes on sale in early 2013.

A test drive of the Accord PHEV is a non-event. It’s quiet, quick, roomy in back, expends energy going uphill and gets a lot of it back heading downhill. When the gasoline Earth Dreams four-cylinder gasoline engine kicks in, it’s unobtrusive and isn’t buzzy or raspy. On one test loop at a Honda media event, the EV battery was almost depleted. Plug in the industry-standard J1772 charge connector and in less than 10 minutes on 220-volt charge the battery was almost half full. In urban driving, my loop of eight miles should have exhausted the partially charged battery but I finished with three miles of battery juice showing.

Unlike a full-electric car such as the Ford Focus Electric, Nissan Leaf or Tesla S, there’s no range anxiety because of the Accord PHEV’s gasoline engine. Once that kicks in, you can go another 500 miles, Honda estimates, on a tank of fuel. Honda believes it will get more than 100 mpge while the 2013 Volt has eked up to 98 mpge (and 37 mpg under gasoline power). The mpge rating (miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent) equates driving using utility-company-supplied energy vs. driving the same vehicle with a combustion engine. Electricity is at least twice as efficient as gasoline, thus a car rated at 30-40 mpg will get an mpge around 90-100.

-Courtesy of ExtremeTech

2013 Honda Accord Sport

When Honda announced the arrival of the 2013 Accord, we approached the reveal with measured skepticism. Like a dog suffering under the feigned throw-the-ball trick, we had no interest in going down the path of excitement and disappointment. Honda was going to have to prove it still knew how to build a competitive car.

Competitiveness starts with stylishness. Fortunately, the 2013 Accord is a remarkably good looking vehicle. Designers have managed to revitalize the exterior without making the sedan unrecognizable, which is important for a model that's sold 11 million units in the U.S. alone since Honda began manufacturing the Accord here some 30 years ago. Engineers shortened the new generation by 3.6 inches, which has done much to take the heft out of the design. With abbreviated overhangs front and rear, the new Accord doesn't look as portly as its predecessor, and that's a huge step in the right direction.

Up front, the 2013 model can't help but look attractively aggressive thanks to its swept headlamp arrays and inset fog lamps. Of course, the chicken-wire mesh lower grille of our Sport trim tester helps in that department, too. All in all, the front clip seems to have cribbed from the Acura design playbook of 2004, which is by no means meant as a slight. We dig it.

That Sport trim is one of two new lines in the Accord stable. Higher up the chain, buyers will now find Touring models available on the order sheet. Snugged between the LX and nicer EX, the Sport trim delivers a range of aesthetic adjustments outside that include 18-inch wheels as well as a deck lid spoiler and a whopping four-horsepower nudge in grunt from the direct-injection four-cylinder engine under the hood. Be still our beating hearts. The interior also gets a 10-way power adjustable driver's seat and a leather-wrapped steering wheel with paddle-shifters on CVT-equipped models. Honda says the new trim line is an effort to lower the age of the average Accord buyer.

Viewed broadside, it's easier to get a glimpse of the sedan's massive passenger cell and expansive greenhouse. Honda managed to maintain the Accord's cavernous cabin and actually expand trunk volume while clipping the vehicle's overall length thanks to some packaging cleverness, and the result is a bit of a bubble roof. Surprisingly enough, the 2013 Accord has managed to maintain its slim A and C pillars even in the face of harder-to-ace roof-crush safety tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Given how readily engineers have come to embrace chunky arches, the thin lines are a welcome sight.

I'll admit, I actually sighed with relief when I plopped myself into the driver's seat. I was prepared for all manner of cabin travesties inside the 2013 Accord. Instead, I was met with a mature and attractive instrument panel without an overabundance of buttons. Snappy faux brushed-metal accents separate control clusters for the climate controls and stereo, though higher trims get a new touch-screen interface for the media system. All models get a huge eight-inch LCD display to handle video from the standard rear-view camera, as well as a new optional blind spot camera system.

LaneWatch is a new piece of safety tech that uses a small camera in the passenger-side mirror to keep an eye on the vehicle's blind spot. Hit the right turn signal when changing lanes and the eight-inch display immediately switches to the side-view feed, complete with helpful distance markers to let you know if it's clear to get over. You can also leave the feed on all the time or turn it off completely if you find it too distracting. Make no mistake, this tech is going to show up on every car on the market very soon.

-Courtesy of Auto Blog

The first Honda ever made for the U.S

A ‘Can Do’ Gearhead Turned This $100 1981 Honda Accord Into A Gem

We see a lot of awesome rebuilt classics. People take old European sports cars, American muscle, and supercars and breathe new life into them. But this Washington State gearhead showed what can be accomplished with a $100 beater and a few good ideas.

He started with a 2-door 1981 Honda Accord hatchback with a blown head gasket. Aside from the engine trouble, it was in decent enough shape, but this guy got down to details, pressure washing the carpets, rebuilding the engine, even installing a new electronic ignition system from a '90s Ford. Then he got some pedals and a new transmission, and now has a 5-speed manual. Bravo!

This is the kind of trial and error non-factory spec experimentation we like to see. It doesn't cost too much money, and the result can be something better than what came out of the factory. Sure, he farmed out some of the work to a machinist, but he has a great Japanese hatch that would have ended up in the crusher looking and running good.

Courtesy of Car Buzz