Cars, trucks and more

569 units sold in first week
If you checked out your local Honda dealer last week hoping to purchase an Insight hybrid, you might have been disappointed. While Honda did begin delivery of the Insight, availability was limited. Nonetheless, Honda did record the sale of 569 Insights last week.
Interestingly, Honda Civic hybrid sales were down 20.8% [...]

A truckload of Insights
Here’s a bunch of Honda Insights making their way through Indiana.
The Insight is hitting dealerships this week, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how fast Honda is able to move these new hybrid cars.
Anybody out there gone Honda Insight shopping yet? (Thanks for the pic Brian)
Labels: honda insight hybrid, Hybrid [...]

Toyota’s ultra cheap hybrid?
For quite a while I’ve been calling out Toyota to come up with a small, cheap city Prius. A compact hybrid used mostly for city commuting when extra seating is rarely needed.
Well, Toyota might not have listened to me, but the buzz around the cost of the Honda Insight has gotten to [...]

Recession-fighter?
Had Honda launched the fantastically aerodynamically designed Insight hybrid at this time last year, it would have been impossible for Honda to match demand.
This year, however, is a whole different matter. Cheaper gas, a dead car buyers market, and a deep recession make the car business a bad business to be in these days.
Still, the [...]

Still stuck on fuel cells?
Are automakers stuck in the stone ages? I’m not just talking powertrains, I mean everything about the auto industry.
That was the thought M80’s new Honda video Mobility 2088 left me contemplating last week.
Fuel cells. Cars that can drive themselves, etc. These ideas, advanced by 2088, have been around for decades, yet [...]

A fun, fuel efficient sporty hybrid
Honda might not be the biggest automaker on the planet, but it is certainly one of the smartest, which makes many of Honda’s recent moves very interesting.
For instance, Honda has been one of the few automakers to resist the PR campaigns most automakers have now rolled out to promote various [...]

The smartest hybrid yet?
In a MSNBC article this morning, Dan Carney calls the Honda Insight the “best intersection yet of the plots for price, efficiency and practicality,” at least in terms of hybrid cars.
And, ultimately, I have to agree. Yet, it’s never that simple, is it?
I live in a congested, Northeast LA neighborhood. City fuel [...]

GM takes 2nd in December, but not the year
In December GM sold more hybrid vehicles than both Honda and Ford, led by GM’s large dual mode SUVs, such as the Chevy Tahoe hybrid. In December, GM sold 2,555 hybrids, although about 800 of them were mild hybrids.
For 2008, however, both Ford and Honda sold significantly [...]

Even cheaper than the Insight hybrid?
While US automakers are struggling just to survive to President-Elect Obama’s inauguration, Honda is ramping up plans to put many more hybrid vehicles on the road soon. The Honda Insight is just around the corner and the Honda Fit hybrid should be available in 2010.
Reports coming out of Britain are [...]

Eventually lithium powered?
Honda and GS Yuasa will “establish a joint venture company which will manufacture, sell and conduct R&D for high-power lithium-ion batteries with a central focus on applications in hybrid electric vehicles,” according to GreenCarCongress.
While Honda might be a laggard on plug-in vehicles, it has aggressively increased its efforts into hybrid vehicles.
Still, Honda continues [...]