2019 Honda Accord Sport 2.0t Moonroof Heated Power Seat Blind Spot on 2040-cars

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Honda boss says Chinese drivers don't want green cars

According to The Wall Street Journal, Honda CEO Takanobu Ito believes that China's nascent car-buying demographic isn't all that interested in hybrid cars - at least not yet. The emissions story doesn't resonate with them, and certainly not for the higher purchase premium such models usually carry. What they really want, Ito believes, is reliable, affordable cars that fit their needs. When it comes to Honda sales, the numbers would appear to jibe with his thoughts: Honda sold 598,577 vehicles in China last year through its two joint ventures, yet just 542 of them were hybrids - not even a tenth of a percent. However, Toyota sold 840,500 cars in China last year, and two percent of that total, 17,300 units, were hybrids, which is closer to the still-piddling three-percent ratio of sales that Toyota posted in the US last year.
Honda offers the Insight, Fit Hybrid and CR-Z in China and plans to make components for its Integrated Motor Assist hybrid system there from next year, the hope being it will reduce the cost of hybrid cars for local buyers. That was one part of the plan Honda laid out last year to popularize its IMA system in China. Other initiatives include the introduction of a new hybrid system for mid-sized and large vehicles and a plug-in hybrid. Among the four new vehicles Honda showed during this weekend's press day for the Shanghai Motor Show (including the Concept M minivan pictured above) there was not a single hybrid among them.

Honda ditching Takata for next Accord's airbags

Today brings unsurprising news that Honda will move away from Takata and source airbags for the next-generation Accord, among other models, from one of the embattled company's competitors. Both companies have been in headlines of late after the former recalled millions of vehicles that were fitted with the latter's airbag inflators, which had the unpleasant tendency to spew shrapnel at consumers. The move, as Reuters explains it, is particularly devastating for Takata. Honda is the company's largest customer, and the Accord represents its biggest product, accounting for over a quarter of the company's sales last year. It gets worse, though, as a confidential source with knowledge of the situation is reporting to Reuters that both the 2016 CR-V and Odyssey will source their airbags from Toyoda Gosei. If true, that'd mean that Takata will be losing out on more than half the cars Honda sells in the US market. At this point, Takata, Honda and Toyoda Gosei have all passed on opportunities to comment to Reuters.

Honda MC-? prototype

Honda is less an automaker, it has been said, and more of a motor company that builds vehicles into which to put its engines. That sort of perspective goes a long way towards explaining the mind-boggling diversity of the company's product lineup. The Japanese industrial giant makes lawnmowers, marine engines, robots... even jet aircraft. It's also one of only a handful of companies that makes both cars and motorbikes. We recently had the chance to sample something that falls in between.
It's called MC-β - shorthand for Micro Commuter Beta, which already tells you it's Honda's second stab at the formula. The first Micro Commuter prototype was announced a year prior and, though marginally larger, struck us as a more complete product than its successor. But it'll likely still be a while before the formula is perfected and put into production, and even then it isn't likely to find its way any time soon to Honda's American showrooms - whether those showrooms are selling cars, bikes or ride-on mowers.
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