2009 Honda Civic hybrid will cost less than Toyota Prius I goofed the title, is should have read: Honda says its 2009 hybrid will cost less than Toyota Prius Detroit News Associated Press TRAVERSE CITY, Mich . -- A top Honda Motor Co. executive said Wednesday the company's new gas-electric hybrid will be priced lower than the Toyota Prius, its prime competitor. The new five-door car will only be available with a hybrid powertrain. It will be smaller than Honda's Civic and also will be priced less than a hybrid gas-electric version of the Civic, said Richard Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. Speaking to reporters at an industry seminar in Traverse City, Colliver said the new hybrid will be launched in April 2009. "We're targeting sales of 100,000 units of this new vehicle in North America," he said in a speech at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars. The Civic hybrid starts at $22,600, while the Prius has a base price of $21,500. Colliver said Honda wants to make the hybrid affordable to a new generation of buyers, but it is not specifically trying to match Prius sales. Toyota sold more than 181,000 Priuses last year, and so far this year it has sold more than 106,000. Honda has not released fuel economy figures for its new hybrid. The Prius gets an estimated 45 miles per gallon on the highway and 48 in the city. Honda, which already has the most fuel-efficient lineup in the U.S., announced in May that it will sell the new hybrid-only Prius competitor in the U.S., Japan and Europe starting in early 2009. It also announced that it will build a new hybrid version of its Fit subcompact, but hasn't said if it will be sold in North America.
Re: 2009 Honda Civic hybrid will cost less than Toyota Prius IMHO This is great news. There may not be any one answer to US oil dependence, but this is one step available NOW. This news is only made possible because of the very first Prius buyers in the late 1990s, the 'early adopters'. After them came the next generation of hybrids, competitors and buyers. Now, as the technology becomes more fine tuned, prices come down, and 'a new generation' of buyers is turned onto this alternative, this bridge, and most importantly, a new attitude of change becomes more mainstream. This makes alternatives in other fields more inviting to people new to futuristic technologies.
How can it be smaller than a Prius yet have the Prius as its main competitor? Because both are 5 door? It had better be cheaper if it is smaller, otherwise why buy it? Probably won't have Smart Key or the 'joy stick' drive by wire transmission either. Sorry, no comparison
It's much like it was 8 years ago. Insight & Prius were endlessly compared, even though it made no sense to do so. Because this new hybrid won't have a traditional counterpart either and the production volume will actually be fairly substantial, expect an onslaught of comparisons. People won't care than the size difference is rather obvious or the fact that the hybrid designs will have almost nothing in common. That's what the media craves in this new age of expensive gas and concern for the environment. .
Isn't the big question, "Will the new Civic Hybrid be a 'mild' hybrid (electric motor assists gas engine), like the current model, or a 'full hybrid' (can run on electric motor, gas engine, or both) like the Prius?" If it's a mild hybrid, I would expect it to be priced lower than the Prius. That's an easier drivetrain to develop and manufacture than a full hybrid system.
