Europeans get all the cool cars - the Fiat 500, the Peugeot 207, the Ariel Atom and now the Honda CR-Z hybrid sports car.
That's right. Honda will build the spiritual sucessor to the CRX but will offer it only in Europe - at least to start. According to Automotive News Europe, Honda is gearing the car toward a Continental market, with Honda UK leading the design effort while Honda's people in Germany work out the engineering.
Honda's poised to make a big push to unseat the mighty Toyota Prius as the very definition of hybrid technology, and to that end the company plans to release three new hybrids during the next several years. The goal, according to company president Takeo Fukui, is to have hybrids account for about 10 percent of Honda's sales by 2010. Reaching that goal will require selling about 400,000 hybrids a year, and there's no way the Civic Hybrid will hit a number that big. Honda will need more hybrid models.
Enter the CR-Z, the first of Honda's new hybrids.
The CR-Z - Compact Renaissance Zero, whatever that means - concept pictured here makes its European debut next month at the Geneva Auto Show. Honda plans to roll out the CR-Z in 2009 or 2010, but how much it resembles the concept is an open question. The concept looks great from the back, but that grille opening is a bit too catfish-like. Still, the CR-Z nicely updates the second-gen CRX.
It will have a mild hybrid drivetrain called Integrated Motor Assist with an electric motor between the gasoline engine and transmission. According to Motor Trend, the CR-Z won't be cable of electric-only operation. Honda says it will consider a full-on fossil-fuel burning model if the demand is there. It won't be cheap, either - look for the base model to come in at 25,00 Euros ($36,785 at today's exchange rate). Load it up with options and you're looking at 28,000 Euros ($41,199).
Look for the CR-Z to come to America about a year or two after Europe gets it.
