Next Honda Civic Will Get Downsized Turbo Engine

As the world turns to turbocharging as a means of increasing performance and efficiency, Honda looks to be planning the same for the new Civic. Automotive News is reporting that Honda will bless the upcoming redesign of its iconic model with a 1.5-liter turbo four-cylinder to help comply with tightening emissions standards. While gentler on the environment, the new engine should still offer decent performance characteristics.

"Downsized turbocharging will be the base, even for the Civic," said Yoshiharu Yamamoto, Honda's global R&D head, to Automotive News last month.

In addition to the turbo four-banger, an optional naturally aspirated mill will probably be available. The current Civic is offered with a NA 1.8-liter engine. Click here to read our full review.

"Quite a bit will switch over to turbo, but there will still be some naturally aspirated ones remaining," Yamamoto said. "In America, there aren't that many companies with turbo models. The power is very good."

It's expected that the turbo engines will be built in the Anna, Ohio, engine plant that Honda recently invested $340 million in. Automotive News also says that Honda may produce as many as 200,000 1.5-liter engines a year in North America, starting in the fourth quarter.

Continue reading to learn more about the next-generation Honda Civic.

Next Honda Civic Will Get Downsized Turbo Engine originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 16 March 2015 15:00 EST.

read more

---

Honda FCV Concept

It wasn't all that long ago that the idea of a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle seemed like a dead-end endeavor. The prospect of a world full of cars that consume hydrogen and emit only water has always ranked right up there with flying cars on the list of things that have always been right around the corner. The technology remained too expensive for public consumption, and when hybrids and EVs began selling huge numbers, it seemed everyone just sort of forgot about it. Except for Honda.

The Japanese company has arguably more experience than any car company in the world when it comes to hydrogen fuel-cell technology. Way back in 1999, the company introduced it first prototype fuel-cell vehicle, the FCX, and later introduced a limited-run compact hatchback FCX for limited fleet use in the United States and Japan.

In 2008 Honda launched its first pilot program for individual customers with the FCX Clarity in 2008. It was built in limited numbers and offered in parts of Southern California and Japan and Europe, where hydrogen fill-up stations were starting to pop up. Because the FCX Clarity was so expensive to manufacture (rumors suggest as much as $1 million per unit), they were only offered for lease.

The FCX Clarity program ended in early 2014, but now Honda is doubling down with a new hydrogen fuel-cell car, the FCV Concept. As the name implies, it's just a concept for now, but Honda has committed to launching a road-ready version in 2016 as part of a wider initiative in Southern California and eventually other parts of the world. Honda has also committed to helping expand the state of California's public hydrogen refueling station network. Heck, I even saw a hydrogen pump at a Shell station in Orange County just last week.

Click past the jump to read more about the Honda FCV Concept.

Honda FCV Concept originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 21 November 2014 17:00 EST.

read more

---

Honda Confirms Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles for 2015

Posted on 09.24.2012 18:00 by Justin Cupler Filed under: Honda | compact cars | sedan | emissions | economy cars | fuel | 2015 | small family cars | fuel cell cars | hydrogen cars | Cars | Car News

Since 2009, Honda has had hydrogen fuel cell vehicles running around in Europe and in 2011, Honda joined the Clean Energy Partnership in Europe to help bring hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the forefront. Now Honda is set to expand its hydrogen fuel cell vehicle production in a huge way by replacing the existing FCX Clarity with an all-new fuel cell vehicle in 2015. What's more is that this car will be marketed in Japan and the U.S., as well as Europe.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles use hydrogen to create electricity and the electricity is used to power the car. This means that there is literally no non-renewable fuel used and the only emissions created are water vapor. The details are still pretty sketchy on the entire project and Honda has pretty much only let us in on a little bit of information. In a statement, Honda stated that this new fuel cell vehicle will "showcase further technological advancement and significant cost reduction that Honda has accomplished."

The latter statement is thanks to a new manufacturing process that Honda will adopt that allows it to produce its cars at the same time around the world, as opposed to staggering the production around the globe. Per Honda's research, and general consensus agreement, this will reduce the cost of producing all Hondas, not just FCVs.

The biggest issue that Honda will run into in the U.S. is the hydrogen-delivery infrastructure. You can't really head on down to your local BP station and top off your hydrogen tanks at will. It definitely takes a little planning and we are interested to see what Honda has up its sleeves for this. Don't be shocked to start seeing Honda offering up filling stations at local dealerships that sell these cars.

We'll keep you up to date on the production and details on this upcoming Honda FCV.

Official Honda Concept S Video May Mean it Hits Production

Posted on 09.12.2012 02:00 by Justin Cupler Filed under: Honda | hybrid cars | concept cars | video | hatchback | minivans vans | Honda Odyssey | future cars | Honda Jazz | Asia | Cars | Car News

When the Honda Concept S hit the stage at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show, two models came to mind, the Odyssey and the Jazz. It is slightly larger than your average hatchback, but significantly smaller than the American Honda Odyssey, so the final production name is up in the air. Keep in mind that the Odyssey in some Asian markets has a much lower-slung roof and a shallower windshield rake than the American version, so therein lays the possibility that it could become the new Odyssey.

Of course, production of the Concept S was never a guarantee, as with nearly every concept car. However, when an automaker produces a video on a specific concept car, you can pretty much rest assured that it will hit production in some form or fashion. That is exactly what Honda has done with the above video.

Seeing the video and people actually sitting in the seats, the Concept S really seems to have more of an MPV type of setup. All of that headroom and the spacious rear seats nearly eliminate it as a replacement for the Jazz, which is closely related to the Fit in the States. Then again, maybe Honda is trying to gain an edge by making the Jazz slightly larger than your typical 5-door hatchback.

Either way, we can say that the Concept S's style is unmistakably awesome and its potential for release just increased 10-fold by Honda releasing this video.

Hopefully we'll have an announcement on a production model soon. Those in the U.S., you'll have to sit this one out, as the Concept S looks like it will be an Asian-market model only.