honda hybrid cars Honda Hybrid Cars - Failure or Smart Move?

[G. David Felt]

According to Autoblog, Honda started production of their 2019 Insight Hybrid car. This will be slotted between the Civic and Accord Hybrid.

This brings the Honda family of Green Cars to the following 5 models:

• Clarity Fuel Cell
• Clarity Electric
• Clarity Plug-In Hybrid
• Insight Hybrid
• Accord Hybrid

These are all cars in the age of CUVs & SUVs. Does it make sense for Honda to be building all these new car models when the newest Honda Accord is sitting on the lots with 104 day supply at the end of March and now at over 145 day supply Honda is idling for 2 weeks the 4,200 employees at the Marysville Ohio plant. This is in comparison to the average of just 70 days for all other car models out for sale.

EPA rating are not out yet, but Honda expects to get 55 mpg equal to the Toyota Prius and hyundai Ioniq for City driving and no word on Highway driving.

Does it make sense that Honda is continuing to invest in cars at a time that the public is ignoring them as they move to trucks / CUVs / SUVs?

Autoblog story

[ccap41]

4 cars really isn't a huge lineup but I feel like they're a little too close to each other. I feel like one ought to go. 

[frogger]

I feel like the Clarity is a bit of a science experiment for them and they won't have much volume in their hybrids until the CRV hybrid is released here and gas prices continue to rise.

 

[Robert Hall]

I'm really surprised they haven't released Hybrid versions of the CR-V and Pilot yet..

[frogger]

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

This brings the Honda family of Green Cars to the following 5 models:

• Clarity Fuel Cell
• Clarity Electric
• Clarity Plug-In Hybrid
• Insight Hybrid
• Accord Hybrid

 

I don't know if I'm ready to call BEV's/hybrids green, articles like this by Savagegeese make me wonder.. Hopefully transparency becomes the norm.

http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/9306/the-human-cost-of-modern-battery-usage

 

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, frogger said:

I don't know if I'm ready to call BEV's/hybrids green, articles like this by Savagegeese make me wonder.. Hopefully transparency becomes the norm.

http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/9306/the-human-cost-of-modern-battery-usage

 

Yup, very ugly. One reason I really hope that the Japanese Solid State batteries that do not use cobalt get into production ASAP. The Toyota led group could really change things up with not needing cobalt.

[frogger]

15 hours ago, dfelt said:

Yup, very ugly. One reason I really hope that the Japanese Solid State batteries that do not use cobalt get into production ASAP. The Toyota led group could really change things up with not needing cobalt.

As he chats about here, I think Hyundai and others I think have an opportunity to differentiate themselves by exposing and optimizing the entire build to be as green as possible, I think there are a lot of consumers who would make that a big part of their buying decision even if they have to pay a bit more.