2015 Honda Fit, Now With Two Clutches

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

The most interesting part of Honda’s new Fit – a hybrid drivetrain mated to a dual clutch gearbox – won’t be coming to North America. At least not in this form.

Automotive News is reporting that the hybrid powertrain, a 1.5L engine which apparently puts out 135 horsepower and 125 lb-ft (according to Motor Trend) mated to a 7-speed dual clutch transmission, will only be offered in a sedan and crossover bodystyle in North America. The hatch will likely stick with a naturally aspirated 1.5L mated to a CVT or a 6-speed manual gearbox.

The lack of a hybrid hatch comes as part of Honda’s attempt to adapt vehicles to local market tastes – for North America, this means sedan and crossover variants as well as the hatchback. Now that production of the Fit is taking place in Mexico, this is a viable option for Honda.

The new hybrid system is also said to best the Toyota Prius c in fuel economy. While only Japanese figures for the Fit Hybrid have been released, the Prius C returns 53 mpg city and 46 mpg highway. Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist hybrid system, which was cheaper to produce but offered lesser fuel economy gains compared to Toyota’s system, has been replaced with an all-new technology dubbed “Sport Hybrid Intelligent-Dual Clutch Drive”.








Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Ijbrekke Ijbrekke on Jul 21, 2013

    Wow, that looks terrible.

  • Bkmurph Bkmurph on Jul 21, 2013

    I like the looks of this vehicle. They got rid of the kink in the greenhouse where the top of the rear door meets the top of the rear quarter window... so the cargo area no longer looks saggy and droopy. Nice.

  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh A prelude is a bad idea. There is already Acura with all the weird sport trims. This will not make back it's R&D money.
  • Analoggrotto I don't see a red car here, how blazing stupid are you people?
  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
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