Honda is axing its Civic Hybrid and natural gas models in the US because of the advances the company has made in improving fuel economy from its conventional engines.
However, battery and fuel-cell versions of other models in the range will be arriving in showrooms over the next two years.
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Executive vice president at American Honda, John Mendel, said that production of the hybrid and natural gas models will stop at the end of the 2015 model year.
Honda has promoted CNG-powered vehicles for many years. Mendel said: “For most of the past 15 years we have been the only automaker with a dedicated CNG vehicle. Despite this commitment, the infrastructure for natural gas refueling and consumer demand remains a challenge. Production of the Civic Natural Gas model has been completed at our Indiana plant, but we will continue to provide a high level of service to our existing customers through CNG-certified Honda dealers.”
The Civic is currently the lonely mainstream compact sedan in the US with a hybrid variant. Mendel added: “For the future we will place our focus more on our two-motor hybrid system, where we feel we can meet the needs and expectations of customers for hybrids and achieve greater reduction of CO2 emissions.
“We will not be offering a plug-in version of Accord going forward as we look toward the scheduled launch of a new dedicated plug-in model. But we will expand application of our innovative two- and three-motor hybrid systems in the coming years.”
The new Accord Hybrid set to debut in early 2016 with the next-generation of Honda’s two-motor hybrid system for even greater fuel economy and performance.
Mendel said that Honda is also working to advance electrified vehicles to meet the needs of environmentally conscious customers. “We are developing an entirely new generation of vehicles starting from the introduction in 2016 of our next-generation fuel cell vehicle. This will be followed by an all-new battery electric model and the all-new plug-in hybrid model,” he said.
