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.

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’.

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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…

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As previously reported, Honda has been actively petitioning the Japanese Automobile Federation (JAF) — the organizing entity behind Japan’s Super GT series — to run a new front-engine racer in the touring car championship. A cursory reading of the rule book states that vehicles campaigning in SuperGT must be production vehicles (think GT-R, MR2, SC430). However, Honda’s found a loop-hole.

Just as Toyota has done in recent years with the Supra (it’s out of production), the Super GT rules specify that a vehicle’s specs and design must be submitted to JAF to be approved. That means that a vehicle can be “production ready,” if not actually in production. So for the 2010 SuperGT season, Honda will bring out an all-new race car based on the NSX prototype (seen above), reportedly packing a 3.4-liter V8.

So… Lawyers: 1. NSX’s lovers: 0. But at least we get to see it race…

The Fiat Bravo and Grande Punto will eventually be built in China, but the Linea will be the first vehicle launched in China as a result of the joint-venture. The Linea will be powered by two versions of Fiat’s turbocharged 1.4L engine, one producing 120 horsepower and the other making 150 horsepower.

Although Fiat sells a few thousand vehicles in China every year, the Italian automaker hasn’t built a car in China since its joint-venture with Naijing Automotive expired in 2007. Guangzhou is one of China’s more experienced automakers, selling more than 530,000 cars last year, according to Automotive News. Guangzhou is also the Chinese partner of Toyota and Honda.

Honda managed, however, to show a $1.4 billion profit for the year ended on March 31 when it reported its full-year results Tuesday.

Most of its Japanese rivals have forecast losses for the fourth quarter and for the year because of a global slump in vehicle sales that has pushed two of Detroit’s automakers to the brink of bankruptcy.

By comparison, Honda’s results look good. But, in a sign of how tough the industry has become, its annual earnings amounted to less than a fourth of the previous year’s profit.

Honda, the first of Japan’s automakers to report its results, predicted it would continue to lose money during the first half of the fiscal year begun April 1.

But it said it expected to return to profit in the second half and show a small profit for the year.

Investors were pleased with the results, which were better than what Honda had predicted in January.

Investment firm Nikko Citigroup reiterated a buy rating on Honda shares, crediting the company’s cost-cutting moves for the better-than-expected results.

Honda has shed nearly all of its temporary workers and cut administrative expenses and research and development outlays to save money.

Other belt-tightening efforts, including cancelling new models and dropping some racing activities such as Formula One, which incurred expenses that weighed on its fourth-quarter results, Honda said.

Its fourth-quarter revenue was down 41.6 percent at $18.2 billion. Stripping out the effect of currency swings, its revenue was down 30 percent.

“This was a good result for Honda,” Koji Endo, a Tokyo-based analyst for Credit Suisse, told the Associated Press.

He said the automaker’s operating profit forecast of 10 billion yen, or $102 million, was a “very low number, but this is a strong message by management that they will avoid a loss this year.”

The Japanese automaker’s top managers are expected to decide how to structure the U.S. operations this month, say people familiar with the situation. A decision would be formalized in June, at the same time that Toyota will anoint a new president in Japan, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company’s founder.

The prospect that Toyota may install an executive in the United States with over-arching powers appears likely now that the management in Japan has taken the unusual step of rehiring a former top executive with U.S. experience. Yoshimi Inaba, who retired abruptly in 2007, is returning to take a position with Toyota in the United States.

Toyota officials would not comment on possible changes in the North American operations because discussions are ongoing.

Toyota’s main North American operations — its sales subsidiary based in Torrance, Calif., and its manufacturing arm in Erlanger, Ky., now report to sales and manufacturing managers in Japan.

Toyota was prompted to consider a far-reaching reorganization by the collapse of the U.S. auto market that led to the first losses in nearly 60 years at Japan’s — and now the world’s — largest automaker, according to people familiar with the situation.

Traditionally, Toyota has generated half or more of its profit in the United States. “Toyota in the U.S. has known nothing but success,” said Daniel Gorrell, president of AutoStratagem in Tustin, Calif.

The move to rehire Inaba suggests that top managers are prepared to take exceptional measures to reinforce the ranks at a tricky time for the company.

The new CEO, a member of the founding Toyoda family, will be surrounded by seasoned advisers, but he has not been tested the way a career executive would have been, financial analysts say. A Tokyo-based analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ascent of a family member had provoked “a quiet unease” among investors.

While all automakers are struggling in this environment, Toyota’s share price has fallen slightly more than stock in its closest competitor, Honda Motor Co.

Japan’s second-largest automaker, Honda has expanded more cautiously than Toyota, and resisted pressure to build more large engines and vehicles, settling for a quirky, car-based pickup, the Ridgeline, at the top of its U.S. model range.

By contrast, Toyota’s ill-timed assault on the U.S. full-size pickup segment, including the construction of a plant in Texas dedicated to building trucks only, has been very costly. The plant was idled for three months last year. This year, Tundra pickup sales are running about 40 percent of the levels originally forecast.

Its disappointing launch strained relations between U.S.-based managers and executives in Toyota City who were reluctant to make such a big pickup.

People familiar with the situation say managers in Japan feel the U.S.-based executives were overly optimistic in their sales forecasts. On the other hand, U.S.-based managers and dealers complained that some bosses in Toyota City were equipping vehicles too richly for the U.S. market, making them too expensive.

Quibbling turned to finger-pointing as Toyota’s results deteriorated dramatically. The company has forecast a $3.5 billion loss for the fiscal year ended on March 31 — a stunning $20 billion swing from the previous year’s record result.

“Clearly there needs to be close coordination between sales and manufacturing, especially today when the market’s moving so fast,” said George Peterson, president of consultancy AutoPacific Inc. “You’ve gone from being able to sell every Prius you could build last summer to not being able to give them away.”

By installing someone like Inaba, who knows the U.S. market and speaks perfect English, Toyota executives expect to get a better reading of this key region.

To be fair, says CSM Worldwide Vice President Michael Robinet, “the rapidity of the decline caught everyone by surprise.”

Although Toyota has tried to reduce its reliance on the U.S. market in recent years, “North America is still a very important market. Assigning Inaba there speaks volumes about his experience and his knowledge,” said Alberto Lapuz, Tokyo-based vice president of J.D. Power and Associates’ Asia Pacific branch.

Irv Miller, a spokesman for Toyota’s U.S. sales subsidiary in Torrance, said he could not say what Inaba would do.

“What his role and function will be has yet to be determined,” he said. “I know there will be a management change, but I have no idea how the organization will be structured at this point in time.”

One option for Inaba: heading the automaker’s holding company in New York City, Toyota Motor North America. That job traditionally has been ceremonial — which is why Jim Press left it two years ago to join Chrysler LLC. But it could be turned into a powerful position.

U.S. car and truck sales totaled 857,735 units last month — a 24 percent improvement over February’s total, but 36.8 percent less than the 1,356,926 vehicles sold in March of 2008.

Analysts had been expecting March to be much worse. Just a day earlier, some were predicting an annualized selling rate of 8.9 million units, but it came in at 9.9 million. “We are starting to see some signs of life in the March numbers. That doesn’t necessarily mean that February was the bottom,” said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com.

“We’re going to need to see at least three months of consecutive improvement.”

Some automakers were not willing to wait that long.

“We’re maybe starting to put the bottom of this in our rear-view mirror,” said Mark LaNeve, vice president of North American sales for General Motors Corp.

“I think we have the worst behind us … I look for April to be a little better than March.”

GM sales fell 44.7 percent in March, compared to the same period a year before. Its share of the U.S. market declined from 20.7 percent to 18.1 percent.

Chrysler LLC reported a 39.3 percent decline in sales, which left it with 11.8 percent of the U.S. market, compared to 12.3 percent a year ago.

“The bad news waterfall has stopped,” said Chrysler Vice Chairman Jim Press.

“It’s a teeny sign of light, a seedling to nourish.”

Ford did the best, Toprak said.

While Ford’s sales were down 40.8 percent year-over-year and it lost another point of market share, he said the automaker posted the biggest percentage gain over February’s totals of any manufacturer, and did it with substantially lower incentives than its domestic rivals.

Ford offered an average of $3,675 per vehicle in incentives — more than $1,000 less than GM or Chrysler, though higher than the average incentive of $1,628 for the three Japanese automakers.

“The market is very challenging, but with the things we can control at Ford we’ve had a lot of success,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s global head of sales and marketing.

“We’re seeing a lot more cash buyers,” he said, noting that used vehicle prices also rose in March.

“That’s an important leading indicator in our business.”

Toyota Motor Corp. saw its March sales drop 39 percent year-over-year, and its share of the U.S. market fell from 16 percent to 15.5 percent.

Honda Motor Co.’s sales were down 36.3 percent, but its market share increased slightly to 10.3 percent from 10.2 percent.

Nissan Motor Co. reported a sales drop of 37.7 percent. It lost a tenth of a point of market share, slipping to 7.8 percent from a year ago.

Korea’s Kia Motors Co. posted the smallest decline in March at just .6 percent, and its share of the U.S. market increased from 1.8 percent to 2.9 percent.

Toprak said March sales are, on average, 20 percent higher than February’s, largely because the warming weather brings out buyers. But this year, March sales were up more than 24 percent.

“Having the market trundle along at a 9.6 (million) rate is not a very satisfying situation for the entire industry, let alone a company like ours with the situation we’re in,” Toprak said in an interview with The Detroit News. “So it was nice to see.”

Japan’s No. 2 automaker said Wednesday it rolled out a record 3.96 million vehicles, up 1.2 percent year-on-year.

“While our annual production tumbled in Japan, Europe and the United States, output in China continued to grow, helping overall vehicle output rise to a record high,” said Hiroyuki Horiuchi, a spokesman for Honda Motor Co.

Honda’s output in China jumped 11.7 percent to 517,571 units last year. Honda’s Accord sedans and CRV sport-utility vehicles are popular in China where the Japanese auto giant runs four auto plants.

But Honda’s production in the United States fell 2.8 percent to 987,169, marking the first year-on-year decline in four years. Honda’s exports to the United States tumbled 17 percent due to sinking demand amid a recession in the world’s largest economy.

Toyota Motor Corp., which recently dethroned General Motors Corp. as the world’s No. 1 automaker by annual sales, said Wednesday it produced 9.22 million vehicles in 2008, down 2.9 percent from a year earlier. It marked the first year-on-year decline in seven years.

“We struggled to boost production in the main markets, including the United States and Japan, due to falling demand,” said Toyota spokesman Keisuke Kirimoto.

Toyota’s production in the United States dropped 16.2 percent to 1.11 million units in 2008. Output in Japan fell 4 percent to 4.9 million, also the first fall in seven years.

Nissan Motor Co. said its global production last year edged down 1.1 percent to 3.39 million units, falling for the first time in two years.

“Facing slumping demand worldwide, we are adjusting our production accordingly and also trying to reduce inventories of unsold vehicles,” said Mitsuru Yonekawa, a spokesman for Japan’s No.3 automaker.

Nissan’s output in the United States nose-dived 22.5 percent to 545,057, marking the third consecutive year-on-year fall.

“Our business was tough in the United States as sales of large-sized pickup trucks fell sharply,” Yonekawa said.

Battered by slumping global demand and a strong yen, which erodes overseas profits, Japanese automakers are cutting jobs and production to weather the economic downturn.

Honda will cut a further 14,000 vehicles from East Liberty and Marysville, Ohio, where the Civic, Element, CR-V, Accord and Acura TL and RDX are made. The Lincoln, Alabama, plant that produces the Odyssey, Pilot, Ridgeline and Accord will see 6,000 fewer vehicels. In Canada, the Alliston, Ontario, facility that assembles the Civic and Acura CSX and MDX will lose 9,000 vehicles.

Honda says the production cuts will come by way of idled production days and slowed assembly lines.