Honda declares new EV, drops some hybrids, hedges its bets on everything

[anticitizen13.7]

I don't know whether this is encouraging or not: http://hondanews.com/releases/advancing-environment-a-natural-fit-in-honda-vehicle-lineup

Key points:

• Civic Hybrid and Civic CNG (natural gas) will be discontinued when the 10th Generation Civic is introduced later this year.
• Accord plugin hybrid will be discontinued, but the Accord hybrid will continue and improve.
• Honda hedging on all next generation powertrain types. Honda plans to introduce: (1) A new Fuel Cell vehicle (2) An all-new Battery Electric vehicle, (3) An all-new plug-in hybrid.

This looks like a plan to just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. I just wonder if this approach will result in engineering resources being stretched thin. Honda is a big company, but even this seems pretty ambitious.

 

[Bangor Bob]

They are the Honda Motor Company, and that certainly doesn't refer to motors of the electric variety. Well, hopefully the new EV and PHEV will be worthwhile. They have a long way to go and a poor track record with commitment to their electrified products.

 

[Saghost]

Well, the Civic hybrid was one of the very weak "IMA" hybrids anyway - unable to drive with the engine off. There aren't any specifics, but Honda said they'll be expanding the use of their more modern hybrid systems.

The press release makes it sound like the three upcoming alternative fuel vehicles will be independent developments; I'd think this would be an obvious place to take a page from VW's playbook and build a platform that can handle any of the three powertrains, all of which are basically electric at heart.
Walter

 

[traumatic]

The Accord PHEV has already been discontinued. They only built 499 of them in 2014 and haven't built any since. Any "new" ones still available are left overs from that production run.

 

[3mp_kwh]

I think the two moves (PHEV pull/announce) are encouraging, as if they knew the ICE product needs a follow up. The Accord PHEV wasn't marketed. It's 50mpg hybrid sister hasn't gotten much glory, either (odd for so big a series hybrid). My take is the fuel cell is baked, good for a little more market confusion (ala Mirai), but it will also quickly see the same fate. Honda's is like VW's strategy. A follower.

 

[miimura]

Honda has designed good 2-motor and 3-motor systems for the Accord and NSX. There was really nothing wrong with the Accord PHEV except the short AER, price premium, and lack of production. I had always assumed that they did not arrange enough battery production for the Accord Hybrid and Accord Plug-In and THAT was what was constraining production. However, the recent news says that they are also increasing production capacity for traction motors, so there's that too.

It will be interesting to see how Honda's strategy of dedicated models for EV and PHEV fares relative to VW group's approach of huge drivetrain diversity in the same platform and even model series.

 

[anticitizen13.7]

They are the Honda Motor Company, and that certainly doesn't refer to motors of the electric variety. Well, hopefully the new EV and PHEV will be worthwhile. They have a long way to go and a poor track record with commitment to their electrified products.

Honda actually has a fair amount of expertise in electric motors, much of it gathered from their FCEV projects. The electric motor from the FCX Clarity actually went into the Fit EV, which got a lot of praise as a practical and fun-to-drive car. The Fit EV had most of the utility of the gasoline Fit (losing some of the magic seat capability in the rear, but still had ample cargo room), but actually drove much better thanks to the torque-y electric powertrain and multi-link rear suspension.

Honda has designed good 2-motor and 3-motor systems for the Accord and NSX. There was really nothing wrong with the Accord PHEV except the short AER, price premium, and lack of production. I had always assumed that they did not arrange enough battery production for the Accord Hybrid and Accord Plug-In and THAT was what was constraining production. However, the recent news says that they are also increasing production capacity for traction motors, so there's that too.

It will be interesting to see how Honda's strategy of dedicated models for EV and PHEV fares relative to VW group's approach of huge drivetrain diversity in the same platform and even model series.

Honda's problem has been lack of will. There was hardly any promotion of the Hybrid and PHEV Accords, and the low production numbers suggest that Honda was never interested in selling very many of them.

We'll see if Honda changed their minds on EVs... based on the amount of batteries and motors they ultimately decide to produce.

 

[miimura]

We'll see if Honda changed their minds on EVs... based on the amount of batteries and motors they ultimately decide to produce.

It is also curious that they pulled the Accord Hybrid production from Ohio back to Japan. That does not bode well for significant increases in production unless a large percentage of the hybrid specific components are made in Japan.