| 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid Road Test | ||
| 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid Road Test, Vehicle Review, Evaluation | ||
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2003 Honda Civic Hybrid(Reprinted from Gannett's Desert Sun) The single most attractive thing about the 2003 Civic Hybrid is its basic Honda-ness. Competent. Dependable. Doesn’t make a fuss or attract undue attention. About as exciting as your refrigerator, but, by golly, just as reliable. It drives, with its 1.3 liter four-cylinder gasoline engine and its 144 volt brushless DC electric motor, together making 93 horsepower, just like any other Civic you’ve ever driven. It has the same basic platform, suspension, body panels and road feel of the familiar Civic economy model. A few years ago, at a test track at Honda’s Research and Development facility in Tochigi, Japan, a small group of journalists were invited to drive a rather pedestrian-looking car around a short course. The small Japan-market Civic felt, well, just like any other Civic. So we didn’t know what the "big deal" was about this little car. We later found out what the big secret was. The little auto was one of the first prototypes using Honda’s hybrid gasoline/electric technology. It was called IMA, they told us (the Integrated Motor Assist system), and it would be on-sale in the US within another 4-5 years. As is usually the case with Honda, they weren’t kidding. Today, you can walk into any Honda dealer in the country and order a 2003 Civic Hybrid, Honda’s second entry into the burgeoning hybrid field, following the introduction of their Insight two-seater, the first mass-produced hybrid car ever sold in America. Most experts think it costs Honda about $35,000 to build each car. But Civic hybrid sells for under $20,000, as Honda (and Toyota, with their similar Prius) "prime the pump" for these cars with the "early adopting" public, getting the techies out there to talk them up to your neighbors (heck, we’ve even bought a Prius!). It’s a nicely turned-out and comfortable-enough four-door which seats five adults, weighs-in at about 2700 pounds and manages, in EPA testing, 51 miles per gallon on the highway with the automatic Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), another break-through fuel-saving technology (you can get a more conventional five-speed stick, too). It’ll cruise all day at 90, has power windows, unique electric (!) power steering, anti-lock brakes, front and side airbags, automatic climate control and everything else we’ve come to expect from a well-equipped Japanese car. And it all runs like a clock (digital). Honda expects to sell about 25,00 of them this model year in the US, about double of what Toyota expects to move with their similar Toyota Prius model, the difference due to availability. Toyota currently builds the Prius in only one factory, in Japan, while this Honda can more quickly and easily be made world-wide. It’s a simple idea: A driveshaft comes out of the quite high-tech gasoline engine and runs through an electric motor which surrounds the shaft. That shaft then continues to the transmission. When the gasoline engine can use a low-end, torquey boost, the electric engine automatically adds spinning power to the shaft, as many as 13 horsepower and 30 foot pounds of torque. When the electric motor is not producing power, it acts as a generator, charging the on-board batteries, which are stored under the rear seats. So, the batteries never have to be plugged-in to be recharged. The batteries are warranteed for 8 years or 80,000 miles. Replacing them is a potential future cost for buyers to consider. It all happens on-board, automatically, seamlessly, with the driver not feeling or hearing anything giving away the technology. Sometimes the gas engine will stop altogether when Civic Hybrid is stopped at a light, but starts instantly as soon as you touch the gas pedal. You do notice that, but it’s kind of cool. It’s super-exotic technology wrapped in a very comfortable, and comforting, package. This is key to its success. The Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid are so close in almost every measurement (including mileage and price) that it’s tough to choose between the two. Where the Toyota is a bit more exotic, especially inside, the Honda may be more easily available, and its familiar look and feel will probably appeal to more people. On the near-term drawing boards are hybrid minivans and SUVs from Toyota (a hybrid, 40 mpg minivan already is on-sale in Japan) and similar items from Honda. There’s a brand-new Accord coming later this year and it would make sense for a hybrid to be an available model. Ford and Dodge will have hybrid powerplants in larger SUVs and even full-size trucks in the next 2-3 years. GM is also looking at their truck fleet for hybrids, because raising fuel mileage numbers and lowering emissions in trucks would make the US automakers a lot of friends in both Washington, DC and the Sierra Club. It’s a win/win for everyone. Hybrid cars and trucks are the logical step between internal combustion engines and all-electric fuel cell vehicles which get their energy from hydrogen. Until those fuel cell vehicles are widely available, another 10 years or so, hybrids just plain make sense.
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