Honda has announced that it plans to introduce a plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) to the U.S. market by 2012.

“Japan’s No.2 automaker was one of the world’s only car makers to offer gasoline-electric cars during the past decade but has begun looking like a laggard without a ‘strong’ hybrid or concrete plans to mass-produce pure electric cars,” writes Reuters. The introduction of two new fuel-efficient models will allow Honda to keep pace with the Earth-friendly innovations of competing automakers.

According to Cars.com, “There are no specifications on the Honda EV, but it will likely compete with the upcoming Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i MiEV.” Meanwhile, a plug-in hybrid system is being developed for midsize and large vehicles.

Honda also announced that the next-generation Honda Civic Hybrid will feature a lithium-ion battery. “Civic’s new lithium-ion battery will likely be smaller, lighter and far more powerful than today’s nickel-metal hydrides, which power most hybrids,” writes USA Today. “It should give the Civic far better range, and possibly the ability to run for miles on electric-only power, a capability it lacks now.”

Honda makes its announcement at a time when competition among automakers to produce alternative-power vehicles is at an all-time high. “Both GM and Nissan will begin selling plug-in vehicles — the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf, respectively — in relatively small numbers by the end of this year,” reports CNN Money. “Ford Motor Co. plans to begin selling its Ford Focus BEV plug in car early next year. Fiat, now partnered with the U.S. automaker Chrysler, will begin selling an electric version of its tiny 500 hatchback in the U.S. in 2012.” And, just last week, Toyota announced a partnership with Tesla to develop an all-electric version of its popular RAV-4 SUV.

I’m going to answer my own question and say both.

It’s true. According to Kelley Blue Book’s list of most searched cars, perennial favorites the Honda Civic and Accord topped the list. The Prius came in at #8, within spitting distance of the Camaro which came in at #12. In fact, if you look at the different lists from websites across the web, muscle cars are pretty consistently high on the search lists, as are hybrids and fuel efficient models like the Smart ForTwo.

So can America have its cake and eat it too?

If you look at the Detroit Auto Show this year, every automaker was pushing its fuel efficient models. Just take a look at this list of 24 Green Cars that were at the show this year. But muscle cars remain near the top of many people’s most wanted list. Take Yahoo!’s most searched for list, which had the Camaro at #1, Mustang at #3, with the Dodge Charger and Challenger coming in at #7 and #8 respectively. So obviously, people are still interested in muscle cars.

So why all the green cars? Well, we need them, as the ridiculous gas prices of 2008 showed us, the days of cheap gas are rapidly coming to a close. Even now, gas is hovering near $3 a gallon in some places, and it isn’t even close to summer. The government also wants all the major automakers to have a fleet-wide fuel efficiency average of 35 mpg by 2010. That isn’t going to be easy to hit with the cars Americans are used to buying like SUV’s, pickups, and of course muscle cars.

These are the cars that capture our imaginations as well as emptied our wallets at the gas pump. Automakers finally seem to be catching on though, that muscle cars don’t have to be gas guzzlers too. Take the Camaro and Mustang. Both have 300+ horsepower V6 engines, and yet manage 29 and 30 mpg on the highway respectively. That is reasonably good gas mileage for any non-hybrid, and especially for two cars that have iconic names in the American lexicon.

Even the V8 muscle cars are getting much better mileage than they used to. Compare the 2000 Mustang GT equipped with an automatic transmission to a 2011 Mustang, also with an automatic. The 2000 model gets 16 mpg in the city, and 22 on the highway, while the 2011 gets 17 city and 25 on the highway. That doesn’t seem like much of a bump, until you compare the engines. In 2000, the Mustang GT had 260 horsepower and 302 ft-lbs of torque out of the 4.6 liter V8.

The 2011 Mustang GT gets 412 horsepower, 390 ft-lbs of torque, out of an engine that displaces 5.0 liters. Seems a lot better now, doesn’t it?

America loves muscle cars, and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon. But what will change is our perception of what the car makers owe us. After decades of mediocrity from the Big Three, it is about time we got cars that deliver thrills and decent gas mileage. This is a good start, but it needs to get better too.

And hybrids need to get more exciting. I was pumped about the CR-Z from Honda, until they released those figures. 122 horsepower, 38 mpg on the highway, and it weighs almost 1,000 pounds more than the car it was based on, the CRX. So it weighs more, goes slower, and gets worse gas mileage. No good. Even if it is a relative discount in the hybrid market, the production model seems to have lost the edge that make the concept look so cool.

I wonder though, will we ever see a hybrid muscle car? I see the potential, if only because of all the instant torque a good electric motor can deliver, and the money I save on gas could be used to make it even more badass.

Just sayin’.

source

The Honda NSX might be gone, but it’s set to live on as the HSV-10 GT in Japan’s SuperGT championship.

Although we don’t have an official release or specs yet, we do have the image above and some preliminary details on the HSV-10 GT or Velocity Sports Honda. Built to the 2010 GT500 regulations, the new front/mid-engine racer from Honda is packing a 500+ hp, 3.4-liter V8 and sending power through the same Ricardo sequential manual gearbox fitted to the 2010 SuperGT cars from Nissan and Toyota. Underneath all that glorious carbon fiber is the same chassis Honda’s been working on (originally as an NSX replacement) for the last two years. The SuperGT season opener is scheduled for March 20 and 21 of 2010, but we expect more details and a host of high-res images to hit soon. Stay tuned…

Source