Honda’s New Hybrid Battles with the Prius

The first ever hybrid car made for the US car market was from the Japanese car maker Honda Motor Corporation. The Honda Insight was first seen in 1999 on the US auto market. But after Toyota revealed the Prius, the Insight made an exit. Toyota Prius has ever since become the consistent number one hybrid car in the auto industry.

The presence of the Insight on the US car market was not as impressive as the Toyota Prius. Although Honda Insight also has the same fuel efficient features as the Toyota Prius, the two seats hybrid car soon vanished on the auto industry. Toyota has many buyers because of its quality yet affordable rates.

Later, Honda revealed two new breeds of hybrid cars, the Accord and Civic hybrids. However, even if they made it more effective than the Insight, these cars are still not enough to sway the Prius out of the market. The Civic hybrid had a distinctive hybrid features but it failed because of its "performance hybrid" nature that later resulted to scanty fuel efficiency gain as compared to the conventional Accord V6. The news was from the Daily Tech yesterday.

Honda tried to bring out the best vehicle to match with the ongoing Toyota Prius but the world famous hybrid car continues to receive more fame because of its real time fuel efficiency. The design as well as the appearance may not be as powerful as the other hybrids out there but Americans recognizes Prius as the best hybrid car in the market.

Toyota was able to sell 110,000 units on the first seven months of this year. Honda also gained a few but not enough to compensate for the efforts they made to sell both Civic and Accord Hybrid. But even with the combination of its sale, Toyota Prius still ranks the best seller hybrid car in the US market.

Honda Senior Vice President John Mendel said, "The Prius has become synonymous with hybrid; it's the Kleenex of hybrids. We feel Honda should be synonymous with the most fuel-efficient company in America."

Honda Motor Corporation is maybe tired of being the second rate which is why they are looking forward on building new hybrid car that could give the Toyota Prius a serious battle. Honda will build the so called "Global Small Hybrid" soon. This new car is a five-passenger car with a price tag of only $22,000 or below and scheduled to hit showrooms this coming 2009. Honda car maker did not mention about the car parts like Honda strut bar, if they are making it available on the new hybrid car.

Honda also released that the "Global Small Hybrid" is even better than the Toyota Prius in terms of fuel efficiency. The company has undergone several tests in terms of the Insight so they are pretty sure on what to do this time.

However while Honda is doing car that battles up with Prius, Toyota is also planning for more high tech hybrids for the future. By the year 2020, Toyota is also looking forward to meet the highest emission standards set by making more hybrid cars and cleaner diesel cars for the US market.

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About the Author: Evander Klum is a Business Administration graduate who hails from Alabama. He enjoys extreme sports and he is also a car racing fanatic. At present, he works as a marketing manager at an advertising agency in Cleveland.