New Honda Hybrid Over Honda Diesel?

There have been rumblings about the new proposed Diesel for Honda being scrapped in favour of a new Accord Hybrid. This looks to be rumoured because of the run away success of the Toyota Camry Hybrid. There are NO official reports or sources on this, it is just something that I have heard when discussing how well the Toyota Camry Hybrid has been doing.

This time Honda would do well to;

-Make it a 4 cylinder Hybrid

-Put the battery into the floor and allow the rear seats to fold down.

-Have 1X (de-contented, ie: no moonroof, no power seat, no alloys, JUST the basic power group and A/C, Tilt, Cruise) cloth trim level and 1X (loaded up) leather trim level to start.

-Keep the style in line with the current Accord.

Anyway, food for thought.

2009 Acura TSX / Euro Accord

The 2009 Acura TSX will be introduced during the New York International Auto Show media days which occur on March 19th and 20th.

The Euro Accord will be offered with three high-tech engines, all of which are compliant with stricter Euro 5 emissions regulations. The first is the second-gen i-Dtec engine producing around 148 horsepower and 258 pound feet of torque at just 2,000 rpm. This will be the same motor that Honda introduces as its first diesel for the U.S. market in the Acura TSX, and we can't wait. Europeans also get their choice of a 2.0L i-VTEC producing 154 horsepower and a 2.4L four-cylinder producing nearly 200 hp and 172 foot pounds of torque. All three engines can be mated to a 6-speed manual, while the gas engines get optional 5-speed automatics, as well.

2009 Acura TSX / Euro Accord to get i-Dtec Diesel Motor

For those of you who don't now, the Acura TSX is the European Honda Accord, and it looks like the diesel will make it's introduction into the North American market under the Acura badge.

“All along, we’ve said there would be a diesel in Acura,” said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. “The whole direction is to separate Acura and Honda more. In five to six years, Acura will be a tier 1 luxury brand. The face of Acura will be totally different.”

Honda will also introduce a V6 diesel in 2010 for the Acura TL, the MDX as well as some Honda vehicles including the Accord.

The Honda i-DTEC engine meets the ultra-strict U.S. EPA Tier II Bin 5 emission standards without on-board storage of urea.

Popular Mechanics; The Case for Diesel: Clean, Efficient, Fast Cars (Hybrids Beware!)

I stumbed across a good article via AutoblogGreen for 12.28.07 about "Hybrids, beware of diesels". I find this interesting since Honda has been really bringing the developement of 'clean diesel' engines to the forefront. Here's a link to a previous post of mine;
http://thehondaportal.blogspot.com/2007/09/clean-diesel-to-north-america-2010.html

Here are some highlights of the article;
-Most Americans have a bad impression of diesel cars. We think of them as loud, hard to start and foul-smelling. We sneer at them for lacking the get-up-and-go of their gasoline-powered cousins. And we dislike them for their perceived environmental sins, chiefly the polluting brew of sulfur and nitrogen compounds that they emit into the atmosphere. All those complaints were fair a generation ago.
-Today, diesel powertrains are on the map again, for both car manufacturers and efficiency-minded drivers. The technology could be here to stay, even if fuel prices (improbably) decline. The new cars run as well as their gasoline-powered competitors. And as for the emissions problems of the past—well, the dirty bird of fossil fuels isn’t so dirty anymore.
-The fuel contains more energy per unit volume than gasoline, and diesel engines operate at higher compression ratios than gasoline engines—typically 14:1 to 25:1, compared to 8:1 to 12:1. (The compression ratio is the relationship between the volume of the cylinder when the piston is at the bottom of its stroke and the volume when it’s at the top.) The higher the compression ratio, the more mechanical energy an engine can squeeze from its fuel/air mixture. So each time the mixture in a diesel engine’s cylinder ignites, the car gets a slightly bigger push than it would in a gasoline engine. That means it takes less fuel to move the car down the road. It also means that the engine generates a lot of power even when it isn’t cycling fast—and that’s the source of the beefy low-end torque these vehicles are famous for.
- A recent study by J.D. Power and Associates found that in 2007, 23 percent of U.S. car buyers were considering a clean diesel for their next purchase, up from 12 percent the year before.
-“This is going to be remembered as the decade when we transformed diesel.”

The Coming Diesel Invasion
AUDI A4 SEDAN
Engine: 3.0-liter V6 Target Release Date: 2008This 240-hp turbocharged direct-injected engine will also be available in the full-size Audi Q7 sport utility.
BMW 3 SERIES SEDAN
Engine: 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline Six Target Release Date: 2008BMW plans to release this 3.0-liter in 5 and 6 Series models in 2008 as well. It reportedly gets more than 35 mpg.
CADILLAC CTS SEDAN
Engine: 2.9-liter TDI V6 Target Release Date: 2009Look for clean diesel also in the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and GM light-duty pickups, around 2010.
FORD F-150 PICKUP
Engine: 4.4-liter V8 Target Release Date: 2009Derived from the Euro-spec 3.6-liter currently used in Land Rovers, which get around 31 mpg on the highway.
HONDA ACCORD SEDAN
Engine: 2.2-liter i-DTEC Target Release Date: 2009The British version gets 51.4 mpg in combined city/highway driving. The hybrid Civic gets 50 mpg.
SATURN AURA SEDAN
Engine: To be determined Target Release Date: 2010The Aura’s Euro twin, the Opel Vectra, gets more TDI options in ’09, which will transfer to the model coming here.

Here's a link to the full article, it's a good read;
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4237945.html