Petaling Jaya, 26 March 2008 – Fleet-asia.com was one of the privileged local media to be invited by Honda Malaysia to have a candid discussion with the Yoshio Yamamoto, Chief Engineer (Hybrid), Honda Automobile R&D Centre, Japan who made a brief trip to Malaysia.

The Civic Hybrid has won 10 international awards worldwide in 2005 and it was first designed in 1995. To date, the new Civic Hybrid had sold more than 200,000 units and the majority went to the USA.

“The biggest challenge in the development of the Hybrid car is the small electric motor or energy management,” said Yamamoto.

“Our IMA system is lightweight and cost efficient to easily cater for all ranges of combustion while the Toyota Pirus caters effectively at the low range,” he added.

Honda’s future direction is zero CO2 emission and the problem with electricity powered vehicles is the lower power or energy density. The main problem faced by all major makes is that the battery technology which has not improved to produce high power and high energy. As far as hydrogen power, it is certainly a possibility but difficult in the short term.

By the year 2010, Honda has plans to introduce a number of Hybrid models and there maybe even a sporty Hybrid.

The environmentally friendly and fuel efficient Civic Hybrid is 1.3-litre with the on-the-road price with insurance of RM162,800 in Peninsular Malaysia.