NOOO! Honda Fit Hybrid Not Coming to United States

Argh! Darn it

Despair not. Honda has a fabulous clean diesel program that has gotten very little attention. They are supposed to launch a 2.0 liter turbo diesel that requires no exhaust aftertreatment (save for a particulate filter) and will get 45mpg+ on the highway when it is first launched in the Accord sedan.

There is no reason such an engine couldn't be reworked to fit under the bonnet of the Fit.

I'd love to see a fit diesel, but a gas hybrid would have been great too, especially for those who almost only do city driving.

Darn it! I was pretty sure the Hybrid Fit was going to be my next car. Back to the drawing board...

Wow...that really surprises me that a small, efficient vehicle probably wouldn't sell well in the U.S. *This is sarcasm in case you couldn't tell*

It's a werid catch 22.. fits are selling so well, that they have none left for export. Maybe if they didn't sell as well, we'd be getting some

Can't blame Honda. The US economy is in the toilet and Americans are cheapskates. If you have a finite supply of products why would sell to poor Americans when you could instead sell to wealthier Europeans?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

So when are we supposed to see the CR-Z concept?

*twitches* I don't think it's as efficient as the Smart, so I suppose it shouldn't be that surprising. But blagh. More hybrids we have versus oil cars, is preferable.

What's ABG? And if it's your source, why isn't there a link?

Question why does everybody want diesels in america so bad.

Here on long island diesel is about a dollar more a gallon then regular and diesels are suually more expensive.

So wouldnt the same arguments why not to get a hybrid apply to a diesel also?

guild, it's linked at they end. they have a standardized way with source links.

Hybrid vehicles are such a farce. The mileage improvement is trivial, the system complexity is doubled, and anyone wanna know how much of an environmental impact all those batteries make? Sure, the environmentalist sector (for profit, especially) loves heavy regulations and requirements for new emissions, etc. because it increases the number of companies that can profit by heavy handed government restrictions and requirements on motor vehicles. Increasing the mean mileage of motor vehicles used by you and me by 10 MPG will make less than a 10% difference in the overall oil consumption in the USA. Remember, motor vehicles account for less than half of domestic oil consumption. Sure, more is better you English majors out there, but if you want to actually solve a problem - you have to reduce consumption by more than an order of magnitude, and this can't be done by ridding the US of ALL cars. Whether your drive a H1 or drive a civic, you are having little impact on the REAL problem one way or another.

Hybrid vehicles are such a farce. The mileage improvement is trivial, the system complexity is doubled, and anyone wanna know how much of an environmental impact all those batteries make? Sure, the environmentalist sector (for profit, especially) loves heavy regulations and requirements for new emissions, etc. because it increases the number of companies that can profit by heavy handed government restrictions and requirements on motor vehicles. Increasing the mean mileage of motor vehicles used by you and me by 10 MPG will make less than a 10% difference in the overall oil consumption in the USA. Remember, motor vehicles account for less than half of domestic oil consumption. Sure, more is better you English majors out there, but if you want to actually solve a problem - you have to reduce consumption by more than an order of magnitude, and this can't be done by ridding the US of ALL cars. Whether your drive a H1 or drive a civic, you are having little impact on the REAL problem one way or another.

Guild,

Auto

Blog

Green

As in autobloggreen.com

Obviously you had a double major in BS and rationalization, Kevin.

The good ol' argument of "nothing makes any difference anyway".

No, I get paid to actually solve problems, and therefore I must recognize what the nature of the problem beforehand - not just pay it lip service. A hybrid purchase is an emotional purchase - you think you are doing something, but it is insignificant. It's no different than security at the airport, where the natural comeback to criticism of the security system is "Well, it's better than doing nothing." While that is often true, it is not true by default. Purchase what you will; send your money to "Big Oil", "Big Uncle Sam", or the large companies who use under-fed hipsters with unshaven faces and trust funds to push their products. It makes no difference to me.

I have a have a degree in piled higher and deeper, in engineering, which took a lot of BS to get :)

By the way, did you ever sit down and play with the distribution of vehicle efficiency in the US and see what moving the mean around for a given distribution function actually gave you? Assume a log-normal distribution (gaussian doesn't work well). Come on tree huggers - stop jabbering and actually put it to pencil. Let go of your emotions and see what practical impact all this has on the end consumption numbers.

I'm assuming you can do better than just one simple little dig?

Welp Honda.........
I won't be buying a Honda Fit, if you can't put a hybrid powertrain in there to extend the mileage. Might as well just buy a Civic if all I need is a gasoline engine.

Another score for Toyota.

All of us English majors are so envious and impressed by you Kevin. I wish I could be just like you.

I may not be an engineer, Kevin, but I am a physics student. Surely you realize that hybrids are a stopgap measure, a stepping stone on the way towards full electric vehicles with sufficient range to be acceptable in the marketplace? I'm pretty sure most people who buy them, and most car companies making them, realize that.

We use fossil fuels for electricity, transportation, and heat, and to produce chemicals. To eliminate their use, we must get electricity from clean sources, and electrify our heat and transportation. We must synthesize chemicals using lower-energy reactants and add the energy ourselves, instead of starting with hydrocarbons. Hybrid cars represent one step toward electrifying transportation (hopefully in parallel with expansion of rail and biking infrastructure). They encourage investment into energy storage and recovery technologies, too; both of these will be crucial for renewable energy from intermittent sources to ever become dominant on the grid. Is that useless?

It seems to me that car makers are catering to suburban motorists. Plug-in hybrids won't work in cities where you have to park on the street, and an the FCX is a long and low design as opposed to the Fit's high and short design. People who have to parallel park know the benefit of a short car with a small turning radius.

Sad news.

I want to see a vehicle with at least, bare minimum, 161 kilometers per 3.79 liters before I even want to purchase my next vehicle.

My little 2000 Chevy Metro, which I take very good care of and paid for, gets better fuel to metric mileage than most so-called new and more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Keeping my tires properly inflated and regular maintenance works wonders.

I also had to laugh this morning as I spotted nearly five large "tank-like" privately-owned SUVs on the road with for sale signs in the windows.

"Not Impressed" , you are correct, I am not. Keep living in your emotionally driven world and you'll feel better about yourself and that's what really matters.

Anthony, I agree with that entirely. It requires a multifaceted attack and all those things you mention are valid, however, the cost and infrastructure impact are enormous. I can not comment on the evolution of those things would be on the economy. It is plausible that we may ecoengineer ourselves into the ground, so to speak. I hope that there will be a balance as we progress, and non-regulated countries such as China don't seize the opportunity to move forward while we crumble.

I do not think the current hybrid vehicles is a real solution or an effective stop gap solution. I just don't see the overall energetics or cost impact of the hybrid vehicle to be worthwhile. The amount of energy it takes to make one, the cost, and the very limited improvement in efficiency just doesn't make the current incarnation or those of the immediate future seem viable and I just can't support taxing people into the ground to force them to change according to the government's "master plan". How would the tree huggers feel if it were any other issue - say religion or politics or education (oh wait, nevermind)..

I support finding friendly solutions, but I get very tired of "eco-friendly" thinkers whose motivation is emotional and who never take the time to sit down and research how what they do and how they do it *really* impact the earth and energy consumption. I see so many activities that are emotionally driven but have little overall effect on the system as a whole. If you want to feel good about yourself without real justification, buy a hybrid. Otherwise, move in from the 'burbs and walk to work. You may only save a few gal's of gas but your stress level will reduce substantially.

The traveling public continues to be held hostage to the s---l--o--w commercialization of vehicle technologies. How long must we wait for a suite of cars to be available? While I have abandoned my car and bike to work 5 days a week until the right vehicles hit the market--not eveyone can do that. Why must we wait until 2009, 2010, 2012? The time is now to put these technologies on the road.

For those of us in California a diesel Fit at the present will not be helpful. It would be great to see a hybrid option only available in California. I know many people that would gladly buy one today!

Should I be upset?

Are you the same Kevin featured on Sponge Bob, whom plays the sea cucumber that heads up the search for a King Jelly fish. Your pesemistic approach to problems solving is typical of an intellectual bully want to be. Oh Kevin.......

Kevin,
Sounds like your a member of NOITB (Notice of intent to bore) congratulations on that.

Build a better motor with incredible miles per gallon. That will reduce usage far greater than a hybrid that still has low miles per gallon. I'm talking hundreds of miles per gallon not tens of miles...

Utillize alternative energy cars that run on green energy not fossil fuels.

My wife and I just bought a Honda Fit and we love it. She just uses it as a Commuter Car, going 50 miles round trip to work and back each day. Were getting between 35 and 40 M.P.G. and the cargo area has more space than our P.T. Cruiser!

I love this car!

If you thing you are saving the world on buying a hybrid you better think again. THINK on how the cars are made all, the production that is taken place in transporting all the materials from all over the world and all the pollution that is taking place just to make one car is way worse than driving a truck that gets nine miles to the gallon. So you TREE huggers better do some research before saying you’re going to help save the world when you’re actually making it worse then someone who doesn’t care at all.

Hybrids can solve the fuel problem but not the envirmental issues . the enviormemental risk of the batteries is far more than that of the oil . what we need is clean fuel for the existing Internal combustion engines .

"the enviormemental risk of the batteries is far more than that of the oil"

Hmm, no. Li-ion are recyclable and non-toxic, and some new chinese batteries are ferrous based, which is even safer.

Kevin

What would you stress as a solution? You don't seem to like hybrids but you do seem to be in favor of urban living? I certainly understand the importance of moving away from personal transportation but I would like to know what you want to see the country doing to fix the issue. Thanks Kevin.

hello,

I am new to the tree hugger site so please forgive my ignorance. I watched a video a few weeks ago of a 1987 5.0 mustang that got 110 mpg. Is this real?? Also, if this is possible why is it not out to the public yet?? You would think that the automakers would be all over this.

Thanks

Honda's fit hybrid won't be coming here, but we can do far better. Ever watch the jets fly across the sky? Stopping is not strictly necessary to refuel as our US Air Force demonstrates. Perhaps the same lesson can be applied to automotive transportation?
Fuel for electric cars is nearly ubiquitous in America. It's in the power grid that cris-crosses America, usually right next to the roads on which we travel. All we need to do is figure out a way to get that electricity into the electric motors of automobiles. One way is to fill up batteries at home overnight and carry the electricity with us in the batteries, but batteries are heavy and prone to bursting into flames. Tesla invented a way to distribute electricity through the air over short distances and the boys at MIT have improved upon it.
So take the gasoline engines out of our cars. There's no need to carry heavy batteries, either. Tesla coils and motors are all we need. Honda can have their fits.

Size and capacity: Honda Fit > Smart Car
Fuel effieciency: Honda Fit ~ Smart Car
Honda Fit better bargain for carrying more than 2 people and some stuff, but gets nearly similar mileage.

Kevin addresses a really good point in that more efficient vehicles don't get at the heart of problem, which is overall sustainability and the fact that humans are behaving like an earth cancer right now.

Suburbia is a huge part of the problem. Even with (hypothetical) zero-polluting vehicles, one still would have the McMansions, the habitat destruction, the roads, the Walmarts, etc, etc, etc.

He's also completely correct about hybrid complexity - now you have 2 systems on a vehicle prone to mechanical failure, plus the batteries to dispose of. I crunched the numbers on a Prius compared to other vehicles, and gas would have to double twice before it makes any economic sense. I want to see more efficient conventional fuel vehicles, or better yet the reduction of the need to own them.

And Anthony, you forgot the most important thing in your response: reducing the need for energy in the first place. Solutions must start there.

Vehicle efficiency isn't a waste of time, but it is potentially a distraction from the real solutions: efficient housing, teleworking workplaces, mass transit, alternative transportation, etc.

These solutions would have the double effect of improving global peace and domestic security.

@majortom -- you asked why people want Diesels. On the one hand, the majority of US drivers don't. We have far less Diesel saturation in the US than seen in Europe. They're coming back into fashion because Diesel engines use fuel more efficiently and Diesel is less energy intensive to make. Also Diesel fuel can be made with plant based oils and not just that extracted from the ground.

Jack McCornack is building his Automotive X-Prize entry around a Kubota Diesel engine for just these reasons. (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Transportation/2008-08-01/MAX-100-MPG-Car.aspx)

Also, the current price of Diesel represents an aberration in the traditional pricing. Usually Diesel is a bit less expensive than gas. But the US passed regulations to require Diesel fuel to have less sulfur a couple years ago and the cost of adding that technology to the refineries is currently in the price.

I think it's disappointing. I've driven a Fit and was very impressed with the quality and would definitely consider buying a hybrid if they were to bring it here.

For those of you who would like to take direct action, there's a really useful page on pluginamerica's website that lists contact info (emails, phone numbers, etc) for most of the major car makers. Use it to contact them directly and tell them you want more EVs, plug-ins, fuel efficient designs, or whateve your favorite technology is.

It's great to be able to discuss this stuff here, but we need to take action and pressure the automakers to give us better solutions. Let them know what you think.

Please feel free to put the page as a link on your websites, email it to friends, etc. It's really handy to have the contact info of all the companies on one page, as getting them to do the right thing will be an on-going battle (we will win, eventually; consumer is king.)

I'm not sure if this site allows us to post URLs. If so, here it is: http://www.pluginamerica.org/take-action-now/contact-automakers.html

If not, go to pluginamerica (dot com) and click "Take Action Now", then "Contact Automakers".

Thanks everyone! Working together, we can make a difference.

Tim, Do you have those numbers? I always heard the Big 3 say that it would take 7 years of gas savings to make up the difference between a Prius and a similar car (I still don't know what they consider to be similar since the ICE Civic is almost the same price) and most people don't own their cars that long. Since I do own cars that long it seemed to make sense to me. I've also never heard of anyone having to replace their batteries, even though there is technically only a 5 year warranty.

I'm confused. I read an article in the LA Times that states the Fit is to go hybrid in early 2010. So which is it? This is the only place where I read that the Fit won't go hybrid.

Honda can't build enough of something? Come on, what a joke! They shoot out Civics like well, toasters. There is obviously something else going one here. The Fit Hybrid was originally touted as the poor-man's hybrid. It was supposed to be Honda's grand plan to introduce a high-mileage hybrid with a new, revamped, but low-cost electric hybrid system. The VW People's Car of hybrids.

Now, there seems to be a glitch. Maybe like the original Insight, they have come to find the costs are much higher and they may need to subsidize their production, at least initially. Maybe they found that the cost would exceed the fuel savings? Maybe it was that the Fit Hybrid would only cost a tad less than the new Insight-II? Some more honesty from Honda would be helpful.

Honda saying that it doesn't think that there would be a market for an inexpensive, small hybrid Fit in the American market, is just frankly preposterous, and insulting. It's what they are NOT saying that needs attention.

Oh well, maybe someone else will beat them to the punch. Smart USA perhaps? Nissan?