Honda CR-Z Concept

One of the new concept cars Honda will unveil at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show is the CR-Z sports compact, a possible preview of a replacement for the popular Honda CRX. The official tagline for the concept is “a next-generation lightweight sports car equipped with a Honda petrol-electric hybrid system” but telltale signs this is a likely precursor to a new CRX is the familiar profile and glass rear end. It doesn’t hurt that both cars share a very similar name as well.

Key features of the new concept include the over-sized grill and aggressive wedge shape, centrally mounted dual exhaust pipes and a rear glass hatch. Other design details included in the CR-Z are the electronic side-mirrors, LED headlights and 19in alloys.

For the interior, designers attempted to combine a sporty look with something that remains modern and high-tech. The result was the adoption of a mesh material for most of the surfaces with plenty of glass and LEDs laid out across the instrument panel.

Honda Will Present Hybrid @ Tokyo Show
TOKYO (AP) — Cars don't have to sacrifice looks to be environmentally friendly — they can be muscular and stylish, too.

That's the message Honda (HMC) hopes to send at this month's Tokyo auto show with its new gas-electric hybrid sports car CR-Z.

"This is something rivals can't offer," Tetsuji Morikawa, a Honda Motor engineer, said of the CR-Z, whose sales date is promised for the "near future."

The vehicle has maintained "the essence of the sports car" while still delivering good mileage and less pollution, he said.

Hybrid vehicles tend to be bulkier than sleek sports cars because of the size and complexity of the hybrid systems, which include a battery, motor, engine, converter and other parts. They're usually not known for their torque, acceleration, handling and innovative design.

The CR-Z comes with a new hybrid system developed by Honda whose breakthroughs allowed designers to get around such restrictions to achieve its lean cutting-edge look, said Morikawa, while declining to give details about the hybrid system and the vehicle.

The model will be on display at the biannual Tokyo Motor Show, which opens to the public Oct. 27 in the Tokyo suburb of Chiba.

Japan's No. 2 automaker already sells the hybrid Civic but discontinued the hybrid Accord and hybrid Insight. It has promised a new hybrid in 2009.

Interest in hybrids is high among the world's automakers amid concerns about global warming and rising oil prices.

Japanese rival Toyota Motor (TM) has emerged the leader in the technology, having sold more than a million hybrids globally over the last decade.

Honda, which has sold about 220,000 hybrids worldwide so far, is eager to make its stamp on hybrids by showing how its reputation for sporty cars will also work for hybrids.

The new Honda hybrid coupe, based on the Honda CR-Z concept, is expected to cost roughly 25,000 euros with higher trim levels bringing the price up to 28k. This news comes from Honda UK's Mark Turner in an interview with Automotive News.

Turner indicates that "Europe is a key market for this model," and it should be. With European legislators making it clear they will continue to press for emissions reductions and fuel economy, the production version of the CR-Z could play an important role in Honda reaching their target of selling 400,000 to 500,000 hybrids per year.

Honda CEO Takeo Fukui mentioned that target figure at the NAIAS last January, with expectations of hitting that target by 2011. A sports coupe derived from the CR-Z concept will be one of the three hybrids on Honda's roster, according to Fukui.

Because of the importance of this vehicle, Europe will have a lot of influence on the final design of the car already three years in the making. "We have a big say in the design, and the engineering and R&D are being finished at Offenbach in Germany," Turner was quoted as saying.

But don't expect the car to diverge too far away from the design of the CR-Z concept. "If we could deliver a car that looked like that," Turner said, "it would be a big success whatever power unit we had in it." The CR-Z, which stands for Compact Renaissance Zero, was originally designed to be more open than other small cars.

Although a fully petrol version of the production CR-Z is also under consideration, expect to see the CR-Z production model with a mild hybrid powertrain, similar to Spring 2009's expected Global Hybrid. This system allows an electric motor to work in tandem with a petrol engine, but not on its own. Energy from braking is used to help recharge the batteries and fuel the electrics.