Honda

The Honda Fit hybrid makes its worldwide debut next month at the Paris auto show and rolls into showrooms next year — except in the United States.

The Japanese and European market Jazz Hybrid has been officially unveiled by Honda. The visual alterations from the standard model are slight, apparently down to tweaked bumpers and headlight glass and a unique Lime Green metallic color. The price premium, however, isn't. We're hearing a $4,700 premium over the standard Jazz. Still, that would be the low price baseline in the segment as far as hybrids are concerned in Japan.

It's no secret that the revived 2010 Honda Insight has been a huge sales disappointment in North America. The once-robust sales of the Civic hybrid have also evaporated in the last two years. Apparently, things are far worse for Honda's hybrids in Canada where higher fuel prices typically cause people to buy more efficient vehicles.

An unconfirmed report from a Canadian web site indicates that both the Civic hybrid and the Insight are being discontinued there. Checking the Canadian sales charts, the Civic as a whole is one of the top-selling cars in Canada with 31,604 units sold in 2010 through July.

Until the past year or so, the Civic Hybrid had been by far the best selling gas-electric model introduced by Honda. However, the second-generation model introduced in 2006 has not been entirely problem-free. There have been several lawsuits against Honda claiming that the Civic doesn't meet its advertised mileage claims. While those sort of claims are often dubious given their dependency on factors like driving style, climate and terrain, premature battery failures are not.

When we first laid eyes on the specs for the Honda CR-Z, you could say we were less than enthused. We'd been hoping for more grunt than 122 horsepower and 128 pound-feet of torque while at the same time expecting better efficiency than the CR-Z's 36 city, 39 highway miles per gallon. Those disappointments didn't change much after we drove the CR-Z, as decent driving dynamics were compromised by a significant lack of punch.

Honda Performance Development will continue its involvement in IndyCar through the 2012 season when new engine and chassis rules take effect. The current, normally aspirated 3.5-liter V8s will be replaced after the 2011 season with smaller displacement and lower cost units that are limited to 2.4-liters. Honda announced this weekend at the Mid-Ohio race that it will produce a new twin-turbocharged 2.4-liter V6 available for lease at a price 40-percent below the current engine's price.

The new formula is open to all manufacturers, but so far Honda has been the only company to commit to the new engines. Honda has been the sole supplier of IndyCar engines since 2006 following Chevrolet's withdrawal from the series.

Honda is and always will be a Japan-based concern, but it appears that the automaker isn't playing favorites when it comes to vehicle production. The Detroit News reports that for the first time ever, Honda produced more vehicles in the United States than it did in its home market of Japan. In the second quarter, Honda built 236,819 in the States, compared to 236,559 in Japan. That's a mighty small edge for U.S. facilities, and for the year, Japanese factories are still ahead by 11,000 units, but this trend may continue in the future.

Honda, realizing this electric car thing isn’t a fad, says it will have a plug-in hybrid and a battery electric vehicle on the road in 2012. But that doesn’t mean it’s giving up on hydrogen.

CEO Takanobu Ito (pictured) laid out Honda’s timeline for advanced technology vehicles today, promising to have a demonstration fleet of cars with cords on the road in California by the end of this year and in showrooms by the end of 2012. He also said the nickel metal hydride battery pack in the Honda Civic Hybrid will be replaced with a lithium-ion pack next year.

This just in from Tokyo: Honda plans to roll out a plug-in hybrid and a full EV within three years.

Honda honcho Takanobu Ito is expected to announce the company’s plans during a press conference Tuesday, Japan’s business daily Nikkei reports, according to Reuters. There are no details beyond Honda’s claim the plug-in will go 60 kilometers on a liter of gas, which is 141 mpg by our math. (Please let us know if we’ve screwed that up.)

The announcement shows Honda is hell-bent on going toe-to-toe with Toyota in the hybrid, plug-in and battery electric arena.