Honda CR-Z News
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Look back a few years, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the only people who wanted to drive a hybrid car were celebrities, leaf-leaning liberals and electric car advocates who couldn’t buy a production electric car. Most of them would have driven the 2004-2009 Toyota Prius -- a car you can hardly describe as “sexy” But in recent months we’ve noticed that more and more automakers are producing cars with hybrid drivetrains. Automakers we’d never have imagined would entertain the idea. Hybrid cars are becoming mainstream, perhaps even sexy. Here's why...
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Toyota Prius, Honda CR-Z Rumored To Take Part In GT300 Racing Series
Think of Japan’s Super GT Series, and you probably think of highly-tuned race car versions of rear-wheel drive production cars. But in in the 2012 GT300 class, the traditional image of GT race cars could be challenged by not one, but two hybrid cars. As MotorAuthority reported yesterday...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Mugen CR-Z: Hybrid Honda Hot Rod Mixes MPG And MPH
Honda's aim with its CR-Z hybrid sports coupe was to inject a bit of much-needed excitement into a market that viewed traditional hybrids as a bit dull, a bit vanilla. Unfortunately for some, the CR-Z was neither a tire-burning machine nor a particularly parsimonious runabout. Maybe vanilla was the...
Antony Ingram -
2011 Honda CR-Z Hybrid Coupes With Manual Gearboxes Recalled
About 5,600 CR-Z hybrid coupes from the 2011 model year are being recalled to update the control software for their electric motor. The goal is to avert a rare condition under which the car could move in an unexpected direction if the driver doesn't apply the brakes before restarting after stalling...
John Voelcker -
Honda CR-Z Mugen RR Concept Shows Hybrids Can Be Sporty
A lighter carbon fiber infused body and a possible supercharged hybrid drivetrain would enable stunning performance from the Honda CR-Z Mugen RR concept.
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Honda CR-Z Racer To Kick Its Tail At Le Mans
It seems like green cars hitting the race track is a trend this year, and now a 2011 Honda CR-Z Racer will make the rounds at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. Of course, it won't go head-to-head with the turbocharged V-12 gas guzzlers. Instead it will be part of a special...
Kevin Lee -
Hybrid cars, often defined in the public eye by the distinctive shape of the Toyota Prius, are frequently derided as dull and no fun to drive. While the Tesla Roadster smashed the stereotype of plug-in electric cars as slow and dorky, hybrids haven't been as lucky. So here are a couple of hybrid hot rods that stand up nicely to their higher-emission, lower-gas-mileage counterparts. First, Toyota's motorsports partner Gazoo Racing (yes, really) recently entered a Lexus CT 200h in an endurance trophy series held at Germany's notorious Nürburgring circuit. Its first race in the VLN series...
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2011 Denver Auto Show: See the Electric Cars You Have Been Reading About
For those who live in Colorado the environment is a pretty serious thing. We have all see the brown cloud that sometimes comes to visit downtown Denver due to the bowl effect of the foothills. We also know as consumers we can make a change in our lifestyles to help reduce emissions that cause that...
Jonathan McGrew -
2011 Honda CR-Z: Determined or Doomed
Sports car and hybrid aren’t two words that have been used together a lot in the alternative fuel segment of the automotive industry—unless you are Honda. The 2011 Honda CR-Z hybrid is the first vehicle we have seen marketed as a sports hybrid and also one of the few offered with a...
Jonathan McGrew -
Report: Honda CR-Z Model To Drop Hybrid Motor, Pick Up Turbo
The 2011 Honda CR-Z hybrid hot-hatch was meant to be the car that showed hybrids could be sporty as well as green, but its paltry 122 horsepower and dismal 0-60 times were never going to excite anyone. And don’t think its fuel economy is anything to write home about; the CR-Z returns 36/38...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Will Hyundai Hammer Honda In Fight For Greenest Carmaker Title?
For many years, Honda was routinely awarded the title of greenest carmaker in the U.S. market. But its most recent green cars have stumbled, and a dark-horse competitor is rising fast toward taking the coveted title, conferred every few years by the Union of Concerned Scientists. It's not Nissan...
John Voelcker -
How Does A 533 HP 2011 Honda CR-Z Sound?
Really, asking how a 533 HP 2011 Honda CR-Z sounds is a bit of a trick question because before you can answer you have to ask if it is going for economy or speed. Bisimoto’s 2011 Honda CR-Z rocked the SEMA show this year by proving that high horsepower and performance can still have a green...
Jonathan McGrew -
As we noted yesterday, we'll be giving one brand-new 2011 model the GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy Award in conjunction with the Los Angeles Auto Show next week. We'll summarize each of our five nominees, one per day, between now and then. We going down the roster by previewing each nominee in strict alphabetical order, so yesterday we started with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car. Today's nominee, the 2011 Honda CR-Z, is Honda's attempt to reincarnate the much-loved 1984-1992 CRX, a sporty two-seater, by fitting it with a mild hybrid powertrain, not to mention two...
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2011 Honda CR-Z: Frugal And Fun, Or Compromised Consumption?
With the new 2011 CR-Z, Honda has created a critical firestorm of sorts: Enthusiasts are saying it should be a sportier drive, while hybrid car fans are pronouncing its mileage figures unacceptably low. One outlet went so far as to declare the CR-Z “the worst of all worlds,” while...
Bengt Halvorson -
Ouch! Honda Yanks Civic Hybrid AND Insight Off Sale In Canada
[UPDATE: Honda Canada later clarified to Autoblog Green that it was not removing the cars from sale, but merely selling down available stocks, and that it would order more units from Japan when and if customer sales actually depleted its supplies of either model.] As early as last year's U.S. sales...
John Voelcker -
2012 Honda Fit Hybrid Priced Under $20K for Japanese Buyers
With the 2011 Honda CR-Z headed for dealerships this summer, and the 2010 Honda Insight struggling to make a sales impression, the third of Honda's three new hybrid models is being cued up in Japan. The 2012 Honda Fit Hybrid (which will go on sale in Japan this October as a 2011 model) has now been...
John Voelcker -
Honda To Launch Plug-In Hybrid Car in 2013, A Year After Toyota
It's been a time of turmoil for Honda lately, with the company doubling down on hybrids and pulling back on its clean-diesel efforts. Now, according to a Reuters report, the company will introduce both a plug-in hybrid and a fully electric car for the 2013 model year. The electric car will be...
John Voelcker -
Honda Doubles Down on Hybrids, Dumps Clean Diesel To Go Green
Although Honda designed and sold the world's second hybrid-electric car, the 1999-2006 Insight, the company hasn't done nearly as well in hybrids as its larger rival Toyota. Now the company has reinforced its earlier suggestion that it would significantly beef up its hybrid efforts by providing...
John Voelcker -
Honda’s Sport Hybrid Seems To Fall A Tad Short
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2011 Honda CR-Z Hybrid Starts From $19,200, On Sale August 24
The sporty hybrid coupe will hit dealerships later this summer.
Nelson Ireson -
2011 Honda CR-Z: First Drive
What do you get when you take some of the inspiration of Honda’s much-loved CRX two-seater from the 1980s and cross it with the also-much-loved Insight coupe from the past decade, then give it the latest version of Honda’s hybrid system? Honda says you get the 2011 Honda CR-Z...
Martin Padgett -
Spy Shots Show Honda Fit Hybrid Testing, But Is It For U.S.?
Honda is continuing to develop the 2012 Honda Fit Hybrid, a version of its popular and versatile subcompact that uses a mild-hybrid system with a smaller engine for even higher gas mileage. Spy shots published by our sister site Motor Authority show the Honda Fit test car, complete with black tape...
John Voelcker -
Honda CR-Z Hits 7,000 Orders Since February Release
The New Sporty Hybrid Seems To Be Winning Over Customers In Japan
Jonathan McGrew -
2011 Honda CR-Z Videos, While We Wait For the Actual Car
We're eagerly waiting to get our hands on a 2011 Honda CR-Z for a test drive. The two-seat coupe, Honda's latest dedicated hybrid, is the spiritual successor to the 1983-1991 Honda Civic CRX, and we're devoutly hoping it's as fun to drive as its predecessor. The performance numbers aren't...
John Voelcker