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Honda says Accord is America's best-selling car among actual consumers

The latest round of new vehicle registration data has been good for Honda - three of the Japanese brand's models are retail sales leaders and the Accord was the most registered car built in America in 2013, according to the data compiled by Polk. In fact, 360,089 units of the family sedan were purchased by individual consumers last year, an increase of 12.2 percent.
There was also good news from the Civic and CR-V camps, as those two models topped their respective segments in terms of retail (non-fleet) sales, with each notching over 300,000 registrations. Combined with the Accord, this trio of Hondas accounted for a whopping 1.11 million retail sales last year.
Honda spokesperson Sage Marie reflected on Polk's findings, telling Autoblog:

Honda, GM supposedly working together on PHEVs, autonomous cars

Back in 2013, Honda and General Motors announced that they would work together on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (pictured). The stated goal was to develop "commercially feasible fuel cell and hydrogen storage" for around 2020, but there was no discussion at the time that any actual H2 vehicles would come out of the program. Things are evolving with that partnership, maybe. There are rumors circling this week that the two automakers are now working together on plug-in hybrid vehicle technology and autonomous technology. The supposed new facet to the GM-Honda partnership doesn't just focus on a powertrain, reports The Yomiuri Shinbun, but also in getting suppliers to lower prices because now you have two automakers ordering parts together. Building plug-in hybrids and fuel cell cars together might be a thing, too, Yomiuri says. The 2013 hydrogen partnership was made between two leaders in the field (the announcement press release talks says, "GM and Honda rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in total fuel cell patents filed between 2002 and 2012." But if these new rumors are true, then it's more of a bit of catch up for Honda (which had a great but unsuccessful car in the Accord PHEV) while GM gets more tech to better challenge Toyota. That's how the Yomiuri presents it, anyway. A Honda spokesperson told AutoblogGreen that, "Honda and GM's collaboration in the co-development of next generation fuel cell systems is making good progress. Engineers are discussing how we might expand the relationship utilizing each other's strengths, but there is no fixed plan regarding specific areas or timing." News Source: Yomiuri Shinbun via Inside EVs Green Rumormill GM Honda Hydrogen Cars PHEV partnership

Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes also under diesel emissions scrutiny

The controversy over Volkswagen's diesel emissions scandal isn't limited to the US. In Europe, where diesel engines are far more popular, the issue is shining a harsh light on the NEDC emissions test. As already known, the evaluation does a poor job of reflecting real-world production of NOx, and it appears a significant number of automakers are affected. The Guardian in the UK has been reporting on real-world test results from a company called Emissions Analytics. After the latest round of checks, vehicles from Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi were found to generate far more NOx than they should. The newspaper also published similar results for Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Fiat, Volvo, Jeep, Citroen, VW, and Audi. On average, the figures are about four times over the limit of producing the pollutant. Unlike VW and its defeat device, these automakers aren't actually breaking the rules. The vehicles perform up to the NEDC lab test for emissions, but those results simply aren't translated to the street. "The VW issue in the US was purely the trigger which threw light on a slightly different problem in the EU - widespread legal over-emissions," Nick Molden from Emissions Analytics said to The Guardian. A big fight to decide the future of this issue appears to be on the horizon. Automakers claim that they can't meet the next round of tightening emissions regulations and are asking for compromises. Although, spokespeople for Mercedes and Honda told The Guardian that the brands would be in favor of the stricter rules. Meanwhile, some European governments began backtracking their support of diesels well before this scandal came to light. The added scrutiny certain hasn't helped the future of the oil-burner. Related Video: