2011 Honda Accord Crosstour Ex-l on 2040-cars

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Honda to import Euro market Civic hatch to America

If you look at the Civic sedan Honda offers in America and look longingly at the hatchback version it sells in Europe, we've got good news. The latest word has it that the Japanese automaker will start offering the Euro-spec hatch in North America. The reason, however, may surprise you. According to Nikkei Asian Review, Honda wants to start selling the Civic hatchback in America less because it thinks that's the model Americans want, and more because it has excess capacity at its plant in the UK. Bringing it to the US would also give Honda an entry against the Volkswagen Golf and other competitors. Honda's plant in Swindon, England, is its sole assembly location in Europe, where the company's market share has dropped to a reported one percent. That doesn't mean Honda is giving up on the European market and its strong currencies, but with models like the HR-V to be manufactured in Mexico and the new Fit/Jazz to be imported from Japan, the Swindon plant doesn't have enough vehicles to produce to make use of its annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles. Producing 30,000-40,000 Civic hatchbacks each year for North America would help pick up some of the slack, but not all of it. It would also only represent a small fraction of the number of Civic sedans Honda moves here. Last year Honda sold over 325,000 Civics in America and over 336,000 the year before, making the Civic its second- or third-most popular model here after the Accord and closely positioned with the CR-V crossover. The reported number of Civic hatchbacks it would sell here wouldn't even keep up with the smaller Fit, but would far overshadow the CR-Z hybrid hatchback. The bigger question that performance enthusiasts will be asking is: What does this mean for the prospects of getting the new Type R hot hatch over here? Revealed in production form at the Geneva show earlier this month, the new Civic Type R is based on the European hatchback in question. Prior to the emergence of this report, the official line was that we wouldn't get the new performance model because its bodystyle isn't offered here altogether, and that our version would more likely be based on the sedan. If the five-door model makes its way here, though, we can't help but wonder if the Type R might not follow close behind. Reached for comment, Honda's US office didn't have anything official to add, but we'll be watching this development closely to see how it plays out. Related Video:

Recharge Wrap-up: 2015 Honda CR-Z now on sale, Daimler and Linde building hydrogen stations in Germany

The 2015 Honda CR-Z hybrid is now available at dealerships, for slightly more money. The CR-Z starts at an MSRP of $20,145 (plus $790 in destination charges), up from the $19,995 price of the 2014 model. For those who don't want to row their own gears with the six-speed manual transmission, the available CVT adds an extra $650 to the price, but also offers better fuel economy, especially in the city. The manual-equipped CR-Z gets 31 mpg city/38 highway/34 combined, while the CVT version is rated at 36/39/37 mpg. The 1.5-liter engine and electric motor provide a combined peak 130 horsepower. The manual CR-Z offers 140 pound-feet of torque, with the CVT version providing 127 pound-feet. Customers can also soup up their new CR-Z with upgrades (including a supercharger) from Honda Performance Development. Learn more in the press release below. Daimler and Linde are teaming up to build hydrogen fueling stations in Germany. The automaker and gases and engineering company, with the help of a few oil and gas companies, plan to install 13 new stations by the end of 2015. The installations precede a push by Daimler to get more fuel cell vehicles on the road. "From 2017, we are planning to bring competitively priced fuel-cell vehicles to market," says Daimler's Herbert Kohler. "So now is the time to build a nationwide fuelling infrastructure." Linde will supply the stations with fully renewable hydrogen. Read more in the press release below. In 1899, an EV set a world landspeed record, and Wired has revisited the story with a nice look back at the "La Jamais Contente" and its driver, Belgian engineer Camille Jenatzy. Jenatzy built an electric car to race in a hillclimb, which he won while clocking a top speed of 17 miles per hour (measured the old-timey way - without radar guns). Just a few weeks later, another man set a landspeed record of 32 miles per hour, beginning a back-and-forth series of setting new records. Then, on April 29, 1899, "The Red Devil," as Jenatzy became known as, surpassed 100 kph (62 mph) when his torpedo-shaped electric car set a record of 65.8 mph. It was powered by two 25-kilowatt electric motors. Read the whole story over at Wired.

Driving the Honda Ridgeline and marveling at Tesla | Autoblog Podcast #638

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and Associate Editor Byron Hurd. They start off talking about why more people should buy the Honda Ridgeline, because it's a pretty darned good truck. Next, Byron talks about some Hyundais. He shares his experiences with the 2020 Sonata Hybrid and talks briefly about the prototype 2021 Elantra currently occupying his driveway. Up next, Jeremy shares his feelings about the BMW X1 crossover he spent some time with, prompting the gang to mull over the notion of BMW's modern interpretation of "Ultimate Driving Machine." After that, Byron talks about towing his 1990 Mazda Miata with the 2020 Infiniti QX80, and then they wrap up with some discussion of the mystery surrounding the Ford Maverick and some comments on the current state of Tesla. Autoblog Podcast #638 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Hauling dirt with the 2020 Honda Ridgeline Driving the 2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Discussing the 2021 Hyundai Elantra Driving the 2020 BMW X1 Towing a 1990 Mazda Miata with a 2020 Infiniti QX80 News Ford Maverick tailgate stamping leaks; we may see the whole thing in 2021 Tesla reports profit for fourth straight quarter, setting it up to join S&P 500 Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: