"Dashing Hopes, Honda Says Fit Hybrid is Not for U.S. " Green Car Advisor

Dashing Hopes, Honda Says Fit Hybrid is Not for U.S.

Ever since Honda CEO Takeo Fukui revealed that the carmaker is developing a hybrid version of its popular Fit subcompact, the widespread impression has been that the car will be introduced sometime around 2010 and will be sold in the U.S. alongside Honda's other hybrids.

We'll admit to being among those who've helped spread that word, and we were about to do it again this week when we wrote about Honda releasing the first photo of its upcoming small and affordable hybrid, the five-seat, five-door Insight hatchback sedan.

But while checking a couple of facts with the carmaker, American Honda spokesman Sage Marie pointed out that - while he and others at the company haven't said so before - the word on the Fit hybrid is all wrong.

"There are no plans to bring it to the U.S.," Marie said, indicating that a Fit hybrid would just be competition for the new Insight hybrid that will be launched next spring.

Nor will Honda be introducing the hybrid version of the Fit in any country any time soon. The car was just redesigned for 2009, and a hybrid version won't be offered until the next redesign, Marie said.

That's four to five years from now.

What we do have to look forward to from Honda during that period is continued improvements to the already industry-leading fuel efficiency of it gas engines; a new diesel; the Insight hybrid, a sporty hybrid model based on the CR-Z sport coupe concept, and a redesigned Civic hybrid.

There is no Honda plug-in hybrid in the works, Fukui has said repeatedly that without a major battery breakthrough he doesn't see much economic promise in PHEVs

But the carmaker continues to work on electric drivetrains and has promised --- although with no timetable -- a smaller, less expensive version of the FCX Clarity fuel-cell car.

We suspect, though, that unless/until industry gets off its collective hind end and figures out a way to make and distribute carbon-neutral hydrogen fuel, that no version of the Clarity, or any other fuel-cell car, is going to be more than an exercise in green public relations.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor