Honda Fit Hybrid: Mid-2007, Hybrid CR-V: Late 2006
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 05. 5.06
Bradley Berman, the editor of HybridCars.com (you can see a video interview with him at the New York Auto Show), has received confirmation from an anonymous industry insider that Honda will produce a hybrid version of the Fit (also known as the Honda Jazz - we wrote about the possibility of a hybrid version a couple of months ago). It is scheduled for release in mid-2007. Update: See our latest post about the Honda Fit hybrid and Honda CRV hybrid.
The insider said:
If you take the measurement from the wheel hub to the wheel hub of the Fit and the Insight, they are the same to the millimeter. The Fit is going to get the Insight engine. It's already a proven powertrain. It will probably get fuel economy in the low to mid-50s.
According to the same source, Honda will probably continue to make the Insight hybrid even though sales are very slow (less than 100 per month) for the bragging right of having the most fuel efficient hybrid (though it's arguable that the Toyota Prius is relatively more efficient if you consider that it is heavier, roomier, more powerful and doesn't use as much expensive aluminum to reduce weight).
In the interview, HybridCars.com learned that Honda would also release a hybrid version of its CR-V mini-SUV [pictured above] in late 2006. Honda has not publicly confirmed its plans for hybrid versions of the Fit or CR-V. [...] Even with the Fit's hybrid premium, its price will beat out the Civic Hybrid by approximately $5,000 and a Prius by $7,000 or more. The gas-only Fit is powered by a 109-horsepower 1.5-liter, four-cylinder VTEC engine. The hybrid version. according to the HybridCars.com interview, will utilize a 1.0-liter engine.
But as usual, the best advice is to take your bike!
See ::HybridCars for more.
See also: ::Honda Jazz/Fit: What Would Your Mother Think?, ::Will Honda Produce the Cheapest Hybrid Yet?, ::Small Japanese Cars Are Coming to North-America, Again
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Sounds damn good. I doubt that they would use a 1.0 litre engine here in the US. I think it would be to slow on the freeway where the electric motor would provide no assist. A 1.0 liter with electric assist might be just fine in town, however.
I've seen and sat in a Fit and it is a very attractive car. Cheap and cheerful.
Well, I don't know about that...
It doesn't take all that much power to cruise and maintain speed, and the assist motor can certainly provide extra juice when accelerating (it doesn't need to work all the time).
This is awesome. Most cars on the American market are ridiculously large and "subcompacts" are great; I had the opportunity to chek out a Fit/Jazz/Whatever on a recent trip to Germany and foud it plenty roomy. The fact that it'll come in ybrid flavor is great. People love to drive hybrids as a status symbol (one fad I'm glad to see speading) so this economic ride will help spread fuel efficiency into that market as well. The only thing that could make this better (in my mind) is if Honda equipped it with an EV-only mode (so I could PHEV it, unless they want to do THAT at the facry, too...)
It is clear to me that Honda has been fighting a losing battle against conventional idea's of what a car is.
So now they have a "new" car build on top of the Insight platform that makes the owner lug around more dead weight in terms of steel, more empty seats and so on. All at the cost of fuel economy. They keep doing that to the Prius too. "New and improved Prius" "More power and less economy" . As if traffic jams don't exist.
This at a time that I am furiously trying to get my current car sold and trying to find a Honda Insight to commute to work and back. A task which is ideal for such a vehicle.
Dinther,
Actually, the Fit/Jazz is a standalone car that has been out in Japan since 2001. They are adding the Insight (or a variation of) drivetrain to it, which is a net gain in efficiency. It is not the new Insight.
As for the Prius, while it is true that the 2004 HSD version is bigger than the previous one, it is also more fuel efficient. It's true that they could have made it even more fuel efficient if they had kept it of the size of the previous Prius generation, but they'd probably have sold a lot less of it too since people in the US prefer mid-size cars to compacts.
Nice car, but compare to the Smart EV, the battery-only version of Smart ForTwo, which runs the electrical equivalent of 300 mpg. See www.smart.com -> models -> the smart EV