Honda still targeting its engines as a key to hybrid improvement
2010 Honda Insight - Click above for high res image gallery
Electric motors and batteries are only part of the equation when it comes to hybrid vehicles. Hybrids still need an engine and Honda is a company that has built its reputation on engines over the past half century. As Takeo Fukui prepares to retire as CEO of Honda Motor Company, he is still emphasizing the importance of engines even in hybrids. Smooth running, efficient engines with good control systems are critical to making a hybrid perform acceptably. If the engine can't restart without shuddering, customers won't like the driving experience and if noise levels change radically between engine on and off operation, that can also be seen as a negative.
Of course optimizing the engine is also insufficient and eventually Honda will have to come up with a more robust hybrid system in order to support larger vehicles. While Honda will be switching to lithium ion batteries in the next couple of years for its hybrids, the company has consistently said that it doesn't see plug-in vehicles as a robust long-term solution. Instead, it will likely focus on using the lithium batteries to reduces the cost and weight of conventional hybrids while looking to fuel cells long term.
Gallery: 2010 Honda Insight
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
GoodCheer 9:19AM (6/30/2009)
"Honda will have to come up with a more robust hybrid system in order to support larger vehicles."
Why do you say that?
By 'more robust system' do you mean 'larger components', 'cause it seems to me that the system they use (having an ICE and an electric motor on the same crank-shaft) is very scalable.
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gorr 9:47AM (6/30/2009)
Quote from the article : ' looking to fuel cells long term '. LOL ok then if they envision fuelcells for the future and they mess with it since 1998 and there is not a single fuelcell gadjet for sale anywhere then just buy nothing from honda or any other car manufacturer till they offer a green car to a normal paying consumer. There is many many old clunkers to buy and it's the same thing as a new honda or gm. They sell shit subsidized by constricted slave ( taxpayers ). So let honda, gm, chrsler, toyota go down the sink for eternity, they are toxic, limp, tasteless, associated together, without products to sell. They can recyclate themself in any other business. They try to downsize the market instead of make it grow. They intend to charge more money for limpier car and stay associated to big oil and goverment money. They sold their credentials for a little money and they now try to eat their own customers.
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Alan 1:26PM (7/01/2009)
Honda and Toyota are fools - shame, would like a Honda EV but they may well be late to the party. Boo.
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