Honda Launches Fit EV, But Civic GX Takes Green Car Prize
Between the tsunamis, floods, and poorly-received Civic, Honda has had a rough 2011. But the brand is hoping to put all that behind it by emphasizing its environmentally-friendly product portfolio, announcing a Fit EV which will be made available in California, Oregon and six east coast markets next summer. Unlike Nissan, however, Honda isn’t actually selling the electric commuter cars, but is offering them at a $399/month lease rate. And no wonder: Honda only expects 1,000 of these Fit EVs to find homes over the next three years, probably due at least in part to its north-of-$36k price point. Which may be why the natural gas-powered Civic GX just won the Green Car Of The Year award for Honda. It may not be as radical or purely “green” as a pure EV, but it can sell in volume… in fact, Wards Auto [sub] just reported that Honda is bumping production of the CNG Civic in order to catch up with demand. At a time when Honda is desperate for some good news (and nobody is losing their mind over the new CR-V), a little publicity for one of Honda’s most unique and under-marketed vehicles probably feels like manna from heaven…
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I dunno, guys, CNG seems to work for the Australians, and they are much more sparsely populated than the US. I remember as a young boy a certain municipality in the Twin Cities had a city-owned CNG pump in my neighborhood that regular citizens could buy CNG from (by contract, and thus, paid by a monthly assessment and/or bill) for equivalent of $.69/gal. Of course, this was in about 1989, and sort of went by the wayside after the first Gulf War (remember $.89 to $1.09/gal for 93 octane? I DO, thanks Bush 41!). In a world of hydraulic frakking in ND and MT bringing the price of CNG down precipitously (compared to gasoline/diesel), I would'nt be surprised if these starting popping up occasionally from automakers other than Honda.
Australians use LPG (propane/butane) not CNG, which is still very rare and only a handful of buses and fleet vehicles use it. Even with a much cheaper LPG price (55c/L versus $1.40/L for petrol) the local LPG industry is slowly dying. People are apathetic about saving quite a large amount of money when the payback period on installation costs is usually a couple years or more away. Government subsidies for the LPG installation industry are falling away as well. I believe India and Pakistan are the leading CNG vehicle users. When I visited India most of the three wheeler taxis used CNG while the rest were LPG.