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Honda's new hybrid will cut use of rare-earth metals

Honda will start selling a hybrid vehicle later this year that will reduce the use of rare-earth metals in the hybrid-electric motor's magnets. The Japanese automaker worked with Japanese metal supplier Daido Steel Co. to develop a process that eliminates the use of rare-earth elements such as terbium or dysprosium. The first vehicle to feature this process will be the Honda Freed subcompact minivan, which is based on the platform of the Fit and will go on sale in Japan later this year. The new technology will help free Honda from its dependence on China, which produces about 90 percent of the world's rare-earth metals. The new process uses what's called the "hot deformation method" to eliminate the need for the heavier metals and likely reduce hybrid-engine costs. Honda's new hybrid motors use a lighter rare-earth material called neodymium. With both electric and hybrid vehicle production forecast to grow within the next few years, rare-earth metal demand is forecast to rise by 14 percent a year to more than $9 billion by 2019, Automotive News says, citing an estimate from technology-research company Technavio Research. Honda estimates that the new process cuts the cost of making the motors' magnets by about 10 percent while reducing their weight by about eight percent, Reuters says. Additionally, neodymium is found in Australia and North America, as well as China. Honda has been selling a gas-powered version of the Freed in Japan since 2008. Three years later, Honda started selling a hybrid version of the minivan, which was rated to get 51 miles per gallon on the Japanese driving cycle. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Daido Steel and Honda Adopt World's First Hybrid Vehicle Motor Magnet Free of Heavy Rare Earth Elements – Honda Freed, on sale this fall, will be the first hybrid vehicle to adopt new magnet – Daido Steel Honda TOKYO, Japan, July 12, 2016 - Daido Steel Co., Ltd. and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. became the world's first companies to achieve practical application of a hot deformed neodymium magnet containing no heavy rare earth*1 and yet with high heat resistance properties and high magnetic performance required for the use in the driving motor of a hybrid vehicle. This heavy rare earth-free hot deformed neodymium magnet will be applied first to the all-new Honda FREED, scheduled to go on sale this fall.

2014 Honda Odyssey set to clean up in NY with world's first in-car vacuum

Much of the minivan segment's volume has been sucked up by the industry's ever-increasing appetite for crossovers, but a few major players are hanging in there, eager to serve as beasts of burden for America's families. Chief among those players is Honda, which is showing its revamped 2014 Odyssey at this week's New York Auto Show with a potential game-changing feature - an in-car vacuum.
Co-developed with Shop-Vac, the HondaVAC system will come standard on the range-topping Touring Elite model. The system includes a replaceable filter and canister bag, along with a range of attachments located in the cargo hold. Honda says this first-ever feature includes a hose that is long enough to clean the entire interior. Better still, the vacuum will run for up to eight minutes after the vehicle is turned off, so you can get every last Cheerio out of the seat cushions, and it never needs plugging in or recharging, as it runs off of the vehicle's electrical system.
In other news, the 2014 Odyssey gets a new aluminum hood and fenders to pair with its revamped grille and lower fascia. Headlamps get a more sinister look thanks to darker surrounds, and there are new LED taillamps out back, as well as revamped side mirrors on the doors. Underneath the skin, Honda says the 2014 Odyssey has received structural changes to help it ace the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety's new small-overlap frontal crash test, and it's also added active safety features like lane departure warning and forward collision warning to the optional features list.

Does the 2017 Honda Ridgeline have street cred?

From a sales standpoint, the gen-one Ridgeline was an utter failure. It had a very narrow appeal, that being the suburban Harry Homeowner crowd. Traditional truckers hated it; no, make that HATED it! They hated it as much for what it was as for what it represented. It was assumed to be soft, a mommy truck; and to their eyes, it was ugly as sin. "Real" truckers would not accept the independent rear suspension, yet seemed ignorant about the fact that our military has been using IRS on severe-duty trucks for years. If IRS is good enough for the combat conditions, using it on a light-duty civilian pickup truck should be a piece of cake, no? I think there's also another issue at play here: classism. I suspect that many truckers didn't like those who were buying these trucks. Ridgeline buyers tend to be college-educated, suburban, and earn enough to have a decent if not better-than-average lifestyle. Many were schoolteachers, accountants, doctors, and lawyers – professionals. In short they weren't blue-collar, hard working, struggling-to-make-a-living truck guys. That didn't sit well with many. It was like their "space" was being invaded, maybe even their lifestyle was being threatened. I can't tell you how many derogatory comments I've read from traditional truckers over the last decade directed against Ridgeline owners. Many centered around a lack of masculinity of Ridgeline owners, or that that they were bought by people who didn't "need" a truck, that a minivan would have been a better choice. Many were owners of big diesel pickups who felt compelled to compare their heavy-duty trucks to this smaller mid-size truck. You get the picture. So here we are with the gen-two Ridgeline. Has Honda rectified its image as a truck maker? Yes and no. Yes in that the truck has shed its polarizing looks. In fact I think it's quite handsome, and will have a vastly broader appeal as such. Yes in the fact that it's been brought up to date mechanically, and the technology is vastly superior to the old model. Yes in fact that it should prove to be more economical than the old truck. Yes in the fact that it's more powerful, and that the AWD is vastly superior to what was offered before. Yes in the fact that it should function better, both as a truck and as a family vehicle. No in the fact that it will still be viewed as a "girlie truck" by many. No in the fact that there is no "macho" trim level available.