August 15, 2016
Honda has created great vehicles in the past decade, and the Honda Accord has been one of their best sellers. In recent years though, they have struggled to keep up with the competition when it comes to hybrid and electric vehicles. However, Honda plans to aggressively broaden their green car strategy with the new Honda Accord Hybrid. According to Automotive News, Honda plans to sell 30,000 units of the new Honda Accord Hybrid. This number is higher than their 2014 and 2015 sales combined in which they sold roughly 25,000 Accords. Honda blames the low numbers on capacity issues at their Marysville, Ohio plant and issues getting a supply of batteries from their supplier. Honda has moved all of their Accord Hybrid production to their Sayama plant in Japan to meet their goals. The new Honda Accord will be the first vehicle in their attempt at tackling the hybrid car market. Following the Accord Hybrid, Honda will introduce more hybrid or plug-in vehicles. During an interview with Jeff Conrad, who is the General Manager of the Honda Brane, Auto News was told that Honda thinks, “The market is mature for alternative-powertrain vehicles”. Honda was one of the first car makers to release a hybrid vehicle in the US in 1999 when they came out with the Honda Insight. Shortly afterwards, Toyota brought their Prius into the US market, causing other car makers to start focusing on hybrid and electric vehicles. When Toyota introduced the Prius, it took over the hybrid market, selling more vehicles than Honda for many years. The new Honda Accord Hybrid has specs which will make many drivers pick it over the Prius. With a much more aggressive exterior than the Prius, the Honda Accord looks great and gets better gas mileage as well. The Toyota Camry Hybrid, which is the competitor for the Accord, currently only gets 39 mpg on the highway and 43 in the city, while the Accord gets 47 mpg on the highway and 49 in the city. Starting at around $29,000, the Accord is slightly more expensive than the Camry Hybrid, but also produces more horsepower for a smoother ride. The new Honda Accord Hybrid is a great buy for anyone looking to get a mid-sized sedan that gets the gas mileage of a compact sedan. As Honda starts to put more emphasis on hybrid and electric vehicles, they will continue to release cars with better specs than the competition. This will cause all car makers to produce more efficient cars, thus benefiting the car buyers.