TOKYO, Japan, May 24, 2005 – Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
today announced that its cumulative worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles
reached 100,000 units in April 2005, including approximate sales of
89,000 units in the U.S., 5,900 units in Japan, 3,800 units in Europe
and 1,500 units in Canada.
Honda currently offers three hybrid vehicles: the Insight, Civic Hybrid
and Accord Hybrid. In November 1999, Honda introduced in Japan its first
hybrid car, Insight, which featured Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA)
technology and achieved the world's highest-level fuel efficiency* for a
gasoline-powered mass-produced vehicle. (Insight became the first hybrid
vehicle introduced in the U.S., in December 1999.) In December 2001,
Honda launched the Civic Hybrid in Japan – introducing hybrid technology
to one of Honda’s global mass market models. (Civic Hybrid was
introduced in the U.S. in March 2002.) In December 2004, Honda launched
the Accord Hybrid in the U.S. as the world’s first V6 hybrid vehicle,
combining Honda’s IMA hybrid technology with Variable Cylinder
Management (VCM) engine technology.
Production of Honda’s hybrid vehicles currently takes
place in two production facilities in Japan – Suzuka (for Insight and
Civic Hybrid) and Saitama (for Accord Hybrid). The Civic Hybrid is the
most widely sold of these models, offered in 19 countries in North
America, Europe, Japan and the Asia Oceania region.
*Fuel efficiency of Insight (10-15 mode, 5-speed MT) was
35km/liter at the time of introduction in 1999; the current model
achieves 36km/liter.