The new Civic Hybrid!... Whats it all about?

With crude oil prices touching record highs, all car makers are trying to squeeze the most out of their engines. The new Civic Hybrid is one such effort by Honda. This car oozes with technology to get the most out of every precious drop of fuel. The hybrid Civic will be fully made in Japan and imported taking the price to Rs 21.5 lakh, which is almost twice that of a regular Civic.

Honda claims that the Hybrid is 54 percent more fuel efficient than the regular Civic! It also pollutes less than its petrol sibling. But the question is, Will you pay Accord money for this Civic? Whats so special in this car that makes it so expensive??? Read on....

Lets start with what the term 'Hybrid' means, Hybrid vehicles are those which use two or more power sources (an engine and an electric motor in most cases) to propel the vehicle. So thats what the Civic Hybrid is all about.

It has a 1.3 litre i-VTEC enabled engine that produces 94bhp (BHP-Brake Horse Power). Ninety four bhp is too little to propel the Civic's 1290 kg mass. So it is supplemented by a system that Honda calls Integrated Motor Assist (IMA). It is a brushless DC motor that is good enough for producing another 20bhp.

The primary source of power is the petrol engine and the electric motor provides additional power when needed. At low speeds, the electric motor does most of the duty and the petrol engine is just idling. Under acceleration, the electric motor assists the petrol engine, which means the petrol engine has to work less and consume less fuel. Only at very high speeds the petrol engine works by itself. 

The IMA also has electric regeneration capability that is, it acts as a generator and charges the battery using the energy that otherwise goes a waste at times you lift off the throttle, when you brake and at other times in the driving cycle. An Intelligent Power Unit (IPU) stores electric power in a compact Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery mounted behind the rear seats. The IPU also monitors the flow of electricity to and from the electric motor.

Initial driving impressions say the Civic Hybrid feels very drivable in city traffic. They say the throttle response is instant and even the 20-80 Kph acceleration time is only a second off the regualar Civic automatic's time. But flat-out performance is not too great with the Hybrid taking 13.45 seconds to get to 100Kph. But thats not too bad considering its 16bhp and 50kg disadvantage over the regular Civic auto.

The Civic hybrid also has an auto shut-off feature that automatically turns the engine off completely when the car comes to a complete halt like in a traffic signal. It then starts the engine up when the driver lifts off the brake pedal.

The Civic Hybrid is technologically leaps ahead of any other car in India. It is India's first Hybrid car. It pollutes less and is 54 percent more efficient than its petrol sibling. But do all these justify its Rs 21.5 Lakh price tag? Would you buy one with your money, considering there is no big difference in looks externally and on the insides and no exclusivity when you pay almost twice the normal car's money!?

But why is the Civic Hybrid so expensive? Its because the specialised hybrid components which can only be imported get stormed by the high import duties - the same reason why the Reva is also very pricey. So if there are proper policies to promote fuel efficient cars like these, the prices would come down. Until then the Civic hybrid would find it tough to find many homes!

sources:

* Honda website

* Autocar India, July 2008