Honda: Development and Technology News
06-01-2011, 12:22 PM
#2041
My first Avatar....
First off, sorry no link available to the general public.
Due to the situation in Japan, Honda is raising prices by approximately .75% of MSRP across the board. Along with this they are going to be raising the destination charge. This will be for all Honda automobiles being produced from here on. Cars thst are already in transit to dealerships and cars that are at dealerships will be at the old pricing.
Due to the situation in Japan, Honda is raising prices by approximately .75% of MSRP across the board. Along with this they are going to be raising the destination charge. This will be for all Honda automobiles being produced from here on. Cars thst are already in transit to dealerships and cars that are at dealerships will be at the old pricing.
06-02-2011, 01:22 AM
#2043
6G TLX-S
^ what about our salaries - due to high fuel prices !?
06-06-2011, 07:45 AM
#2044
Safety Car
Strategy
TOKYO -- Despite being the 1st to sell an electric-gasoline car in the United States and making hybrid technology a centerpiece of its fuel economy push, Honda Motor Co. has yet to have a hybrid hit.
But the redesigned Civic Hybrid, launched April 20, is the 1st test of whether Honda's new strategy of tapping lithium ion batteries and, later, 2-motor systems can break the streak.
Past Honda hybrids have fallen short on fuel economy, as the Insight did against the Toyota Prius, or on power, as the short-lived Honda Accord hybrid fared against nonhybrid rivals. Honda's new hybrid plan aims to fix both problems.
The 1st improvement is using lithium ion batteries, made by Blue Energy Co., a joint venture between Honda and GS Yuasa Corp. The goal is to save weight and space, while increasing fuel economy. But the new batteries are costly.
Higher mpg, sticker
The new Civic's lithium battery weighs 48.5 pounds, compared with 69 pounds for its predecessor's nickel-metal hydride battery. That helps the new Civic Hybrid get 44 mpg in both city and highway driving , edging the previous generation's EPA rating of 40 city/43 highway.
The updated hybrid also gets a lighter, more powerful electric motor, with output increased to 17 kilowatts, from 15 kilowatts. It also offers more cabin space.
Its sticker starts at $24,800, including shipping, just $100 more than the earlier version's base price. But the Civic's sticker tops the Prius' base price of $22,880, including shipping.
So far sales have been sluggish. That is due in part to limited availability of the Japan-made hybrid because of earthquake-induced supply chain disruptions. Through May, Honda sold only 389 new Civic Hybrids in the United States, less than 1% of all Civics sold in that period. In 2010, hybrids accounted for 3% of the 260,218 Civics sold.
But slashing costs eventually will be key to driving sales higher.
"Toyota has already reduced the cost of its hybrid system over several years," says Toru Hatano, a powertrain analyst at IHS Global Insight in Tokyo. "But Honda is launching a whole new system, so we can expect their costs to be higher in the near term."
2-motor hybrid
Honda also will install lithium ion batteries in a new 2-motor hybrid system debuting next year in the United States for mid-sized plug-in hybrids.
Honda hasn't said what car gets it 1st. But engineers are testing the system in an Accord. A suitcase-sized lithium ion battery pack sits behind the back seat, eating trunk space.
An engineer involved with the project said testing is expected to continue through year end, and the company must decide if the 15-mile range in electric-only mode is sufficient. If user feedback suggests more range is needed, Honda will have to make the battery bigger or cut the car's weight, he said.
"We think a 15 mile range satisfies about 70% of the users," he said.
Already, Honda has tweaked the plug-in version of the Accord with an aluminum hood and other weight shavings. But the plug-in still weighs 330 pounds more than its gasoline counterpart.
Honda is rolling out the new hybrid system to counter criticism that its current technology is too weak to provide extended electric-only travel. The Integrated Motor Assist system used in the Insight, Civic and CR-Z hybrids uses the electric motor mostly to assist the gasoline engine.
The new system uses one traction motor to move the car and 1 generator motor to recharge the battery. The former, a 120-kilowatt motor, is combined with a 2.0-liter, 4 cylinder engine and continuously variable transmission.
The car has a top speed of 62 mph in electric-only mode, but a big question will be how far it can travel at that speed. The Accord plug-in hybrid can recharge in 4 hours from a 100-volt source or in 1.5 hours from a 200-volt source, the engineer said.
Honda President Takanobu Ito said last fall that the new hybrid system for larger vehicles will give electric-gasoline drivetrains a bigger slice of Honda's global sales -- pushing hybrids to around 10% of global sales by 2015, from less than 5% in 2009.
The electrified powertrains also will feature prominently in the Acura lineup, Ito said, reinforcing what he calls the "smart premium" image to which the brand aspires.
06-06-2011, 10:22 AM
#2045
Race Director
The electrified powertrains also will feature prominently in the Acura lineup, Ito said, reinforcing what he calls the "smart premium" image to which the brand aspires.
@ Acura still aspiring for the "smart permium" image to register with buyers. Meanwhile Audi and maybe others will pass them by.In another 10 years Honda will look back and see what a total waste of resources chasing the Prius was.
08-25-2011, 09:16 PM
#2048
Safety Car
WindTunnel
Honda Motor Co. is making $355 million of upgrades at plants in Ohio where it opened its first U.S. wind tunnel, seeking productivity and fuel-economy gains for models designed and built in North America.
The Ohio projects for Japan’s first company to make cars in the U.S. include $166 million of improvements to its factory in East Liberty and a $64 million stamping press at its Marysville plant, said Ron Lietzke, spokesman for the company’s assembly unit. Honda wouldn’t provide the cost of the wind tunnel or other additions to its engineering center in Raymond.
“The driver of the projects is to improve all our characteristics,” Lietzke said in an interview, declining to say whether the changes will lead to greater output. “If we end up increasing production capacity as a result, that’s fine,” he said, without elaborating.
Honda is refurbishing factories as it prepares to restore full North American production next month after parts shortages triggered by Japan’s March earthquake left Honda and Acura dealers short of models. The Tokyo-based company’s U.S. sales fell 2.6% this year through July, and market share shrank to 9.3% from 10.6% as industrywide deliveries rose 11%.
Output at Honda’s auto-assembly plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico dropped 26%to 559,981 through July from 754,807 a year ago, according to company data.
Efficiency
Having opened Marysville in 1982, before Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), Nissan Motor Co. and other Asian companies began making cars in the U.S., Honda’s North America engineering and production units are among the region’s most sophisticated, said Jeffrey Liker, professor of engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“By the most common productivity metrics, they’re among the most efficient,” said Liker, who studies automotive- assembly operations. “They have a history of developing exceptional people and actually keeping them. That allows them to accumulate knowledge and continue to learn.”
The Raymond R&D center, near the Marysville and East Liberty plants, is Honda’s main vehicle-development facility for the Americas. It’s responsible for designing and engineering the Pilot and Acura MDX sport-utility vehicles, Ridgeline pickup, Acura ZDX wagon and TL sedan, and North American version Odyssey minivan, all of which are built only in the region.
Fuel-Economy Push
Boosting fuel-economy on those models to meet tightening regulations is also its responsibility, Frank Paluch, senior vice present of Honda R&D Americas, said in an interview this month.
Last month, carmakers agreed to double the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, to 54.5 mpg by 2025. The first phase for the industry is to reach a U.S. average of 35.5 mpg by 2016.
“We are very aware of those targets and where our responsibility is for CAFE within the lineup. There are set plans how to meet them,” Paluch said. “By the 2016 model introductions, we’ll target about an 18% improvement, specifically for our areas.”
Improvements will come through enhanced engine and transmission performance, lighter-weight materials, and smaller and more-efficient components, said Paluch.
Such “evolutionary” changes were used when Ohio engineers revamped the Odyssey last year, raising fuel economy 17%, he said. Hitting the 2025 goal is a “bit more gray,” he said.
“If consumers are buying a lot more hybrids, we can easily meet those requirements,” Paluch said. “If consumers don’t buy a lot more hybrids or don’t buy more battery-electric vehicles, we’re going to have to think about other ways to meet those goals.”
Wind Tunnel
Honda hasn’t previously acknowledged the Ohio wind tunnel that was built in late 2010. It will help engineers improve vehicle aerodynamics for further efficiency gains, said John Dirrig, a manager and chief engineer at the Raymond center.
“The ability to do that type of analysis as early as possible in the development phase of new vehicles is a big deal,” he said.
Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai Motor Co. (005380) don’t have wind tunnels in the U.S. Toyota’s Technical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, uses one nearby operated by affiliate Denso Corp., said Bruce Brownlee, a Toyota spokesman.
Honda’s is a “half-scale” tunnel, intended for early prototypes.
‘Not Just a Big Fan’
Such a device may cost $25 million, while a full-size wind tunnel is at least $100 million, said Frank Ohlemacher, project manager at the Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research in Columbus. “This is sophisticated equipment, not just a big fan,” Ohlemacher said.
Honda won’t say how much it’s invested in Raymond, where more than 1,000 engineers work at desks in a central hall the length of 2.5 football fields, or 750 feet. It also has a crash- test center and laboratories to test electromagnetic interference and the effect of heat, rain and cold on vehicles.
Along with the Ohio upgrades, Honda said in March it’s spending $94 million to modify its Lincoln, Alabama, plant that builds Odysseys and Pilots. This month Honda said it will build an $800 million plant in central Mexico that will make 200,000 small cars a year after it opens in 2014.
Honda’s American depositary receipts, representing one ordinary share, rose 69 cents, or 2.3%, $31.30 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Its U.S. unit is based in Torrance, California.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net
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Invisible (08-26-2011)
08-25-2011, 09:32 PM
#2049
I drive a Subata.
iTrader: (1)
They should have spent that money to hire a new designer.
08-26-2011, 10:56 AM
#2051
I drive a Subata.
iTrader: (1)
Of course it's a good news! It's Honda! 
08-26-2011, 11:01 AM
#2052
Moderator
08-26-2011, 11:05 AM
#2053
I drive a Subata.
iTrader: (1)
Agreed. 
09-14-2011, 09:16 AM
#2054
Safety Car
China
BEIJING—Honda Motor Co. plans a new push to make and sell fuel-efficient hybrid cars in China, as the Japanese auto maker looks for ways to revitalize its brands there and as the overall industry faces tough new fuel-economy requirements.
Honda will likely start producing electric-gasoline hybrid cars in China in "two to three years" if its sales push succeeds, said Seiji Kuraishi, chief of Honda's China operations. Honda plans to launch five hybrid models next year: the Insight, the CR-Z, a hybrid version of the Fit, a significantly redesigned hybrid version of the Civic and a hybrid model for Honda's upper-scale brand Acura. All of those cars are small cars.
The Japanese auto maker is determined to make hybrid technology popular in China, Mr. Kuraishi said. Current green-car technology efforts in China are largely focused on electric cars rather than hybrids, which use both electricity and gasoline.
Most hybrid cars in China are too expensive for consumers because they are imported, resulting in hefty duties and taxes. Honda's current Civic hybrid costs 269,800 yuan, or about $42,200, compared with $24,000 to $27,000 in the U.S. Currently, it sells only about 200 to 300 Civic hybrids a year.
Honda should be able to sell roughly 50,000 hybrid cars in two to three years if it is successful in making hybrid technology more widely accepted, Mr. Kuraishi said. When it reaches that level, the company would be ready to start producing hybrids in China, he said.
The push comes as auto makers brace for stringent new Chinese fuel-economy standards expected to be phased in over the coming years. Beijing has yet to detail the requirements. But Mr. Kuraishi said the company expects they will give its hybrids—and its Honda and Acura brand names—more appeal. "It's a big opportunity for us," Mr. Kuraishi said, citing the boost Honda and other Japanese auto makers received from tougher new fuel-efficiency standards in the U.S. in decades past.
Any shift in hybrid production to China risks giving Chinese companies access to Honda's technology under the expected new Chinese rules, which are also likely to require foreign auto makers to cede control of local component production to Chinese joint-venture partners. But Mr. Kuraishi said Honda should be able to control the scope and nature of hybrid technology it would share with joint-venture partners in China, among others.
Still, he said sharing advanced green-car technology with Chinese companies might be a good idea, because it would make producing them in China easier and because it could help popularize hybrid cars there. "If necessary," Honda would not hesitate to share technology, Mr. Kuraishi said.
The auto maker has been looking for ways to jump-start its overall sales in China, which is now the world's largest auto market and continues to grow despite government efforts to gradually cool the economy. Mr. Kuraishi said Honda's overall auto sales, including a small number of imported cars from Japan, should amount to about 650,000 cars this year, roughly the same level of its sales volume last year. He cited the massive earthquake that hit Japan in March, which crippled production at some parts suppliers in Japan, causing shortages at the company's plants in China and around the world.
Initially, the company would start with what's known as knock-down production, which involves mostly assembling vehicles from already-made parts, while bringing components such as batteries and motors from Japan. But over time, Mr. Kuraishi said, Honda would being to buy or make key parts locally, especially batteries and motors, since they are heavy and thus cumbersome and expensive to bring in from Japan.
Write to Norihiko Shirouzu at norihiko.shirouzu@wsj.com
11-08-2011, 10:26 AM
#2055
Race Director
http://content.usatoday.com/communit...t-on-its-own/1
Honda has spruced up its humanoid robot, Asimo, giving it the ability to move without being controlled by an operator.
The all-new ASIMO can continue moving without being controlled by an operator, and has significantly improved intelligence and the physical ability to adapt to situations.
Now, the robot can not only move on its own, but it's been given more intelligence and a greater capability to cope with different situations. "With significantly improved intelligence and the physical ability to adapt to situations, Asimo took another step closer to practical use in an office or a public space where many people come and go," Honda says in a statement.
Now it can:
- Maintain its posture by putting out its leg in an instant.
- Comprehend the movements of people around it using multiple sensors and estimate the changes that are taking place.
- Use its new capability to make predictions from gathered information and autonomously determine the next behavior without being controlled by an operator.
- Able to contribute to automotive forums
The all-new ASIMO can continue moving without being controlled by an operator, and has significantly improved intelligence and the physical ability to adapt to situations.
Now, the robot can not only move on its own, but it's been given more intelligence and a greater capability to cope with different situations. "With significantly improved intelligence and the physical ability to adapt to situations, Asimo took another step closer to practical use in an office or a public space where many people come and go," Honda says in a statement.
Now it can:
- Maintain its posture by putting out its leg in an instant.
- Comprehend the movements of people around it using multiple sensors and estimate the changes that are taking place.
- Use its new capability to make predictions from gathered information and autonomously determine the next behavior without being controlled by an operator.
- Able to contribute to automotive forums
11-08-2011, 11:10 AM
#2059
Moderator
11-08-2011, 12:06 PM
#2061
I drive a Subata.
iTrader: (1)
11-08-2011, 01:16 PM
#2062
Senior Moderator
Now boys!! 
Play nice.
Any word on an Asimo Type R model?
Play nice.Any word on an Asimo Type R model?
11-08-2011, 01:19 PM
#2064
I drive a Subata.
iTrader: (1)
Asimo Type R??
What is that? A robot with VTEC?
What is that? A robot with VTEC?
11-08-2011, 01:28 PM
#2065
Moderator
11-08-2011, 01:29 PM
#2066
My first Avatar....
11-08-2011, 01:29 PM
#2067
Then fucking ban me so trolls like DOM can talk about me. I tried to make a meaningful contribution to this forum. I tried to create post with news and information, and the anti HONDA crowd here all banned together asking for me to be banned, including DOM.
So please, just ban me. I can't delete the account to my knowledge, or I would.
11-08-2011, 01:30 PM
#2069
Then fucking ban me so trolls like DOM can talk about me. I tried to make a meaningful contribution to this forum. I tried to create post with news and information, and the anti HONDA crowd here all banned together asking for me to be banned, including DOM.
So please, just ban me. I can't delete the account to my knowledge, or I would.
So please, just ban me. I can't delete the account to my knowledge, or I would.
you could stop signing on
11-08-2011, 01:35 PM
#2070
Moderator
Then fucking ban me so trolls like DOM can talk about me. I tried to make a meaningful contribution to this forum. I tried to create post with news and information, and the anti HONDA crowd here all banned together asking for me to be banned, including DOM.
So please, just ban me. I can't delete the account to my knowledge, or I would.
So please, just ban me. I can't delete the account to my knowledge, or I would.
That would require a quantum of self discipline, the presence of which is not self-evident.
Last edited by ttribe; 11-08-2011 at 01:42 PM.
11-08-2011, 01:38 PM
#2071
My first Avatar....
Then fucking ban me so trolls like DOM can talk about me. I tried to make a meaningful contribution to this forum. I tried to create post with news and information, and the anti HONDA crowd here all banned together asking for me to be banned, including DOM.
So please, just ban me. I can't delete the account to my knowledge, or I would.
So please, just ban me. I can't delete the account to my knowledge, or I would.
Priceless!
11-08-2011, 01:39 PM
#2073
I drive a Subata.
iTrader: (1)
Then fucking ban me so trolls like DOM can talk about me. I tried to make a meaningful contribution to this forum. I tried to create post with news and information, and the anti HONDA crowd here all banned together asking for me to be banned, including DOM.
So please, just ban me. I can't delete the account to my knowledge, or I would.
So please, just ban me. I can't delete the account to my knowledge, or I would.
And all the info that you tried to post were already available on the other official threads for each honda/acura model. You made several new threads even though you knew you weren't supposed to. Why? Because you finally had something to show off even though it wasn't that big of a deal. And do you ever post something that's negative about honda/acura? You only look at the things that you want to look at and ignore the other facts.
We are not hating on honda/acura. We are just thinking objectively like every other grown ups do.
If you want to be banned, just ban yourself by not coming on here.
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11-08-2011, 01:43 PM
#2074
Most of the 'anti-honda' crowd here has owned Hondas.Hell, I'm a Dodger fan, and I hate the ownership (Frank McCourt). Doesn't mean I hate the Dodgers.
Honda's been misguided....the only standard many (industry analysts, former owners, etc) have been holding it to is itself.
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Costco (11-08-2011)
11-08-2011, 02:15 PM
#2076
The sizzle in the Steak
The ban hammer has been thrown down!!!!
11-08-2011, 02:28 PM
#2077
Moderator
11-08-2011, 02:35 PM
#2078
Senior Moderator
Just to be clear, and let this be the last word on Invisible in this thread. He wasn't banned because of something he did. He PM'ed an admin and asked to be removed from the site.
For the record I don't think he deserved to be banned but I think it was obvious it would have come to that at some point anyway.
80Honda
For the record I don't think he deserved to be banned but I think it was obvious it would have come to that at some point anyway.
80Honda
11-08-2011, 07:50 PM
#2079
Motion to change SSFTSX's screen name to ASIMO? 
I read that and laughed out loud at work.
I read that and laughed out loud at work.
11-08-2011, 07:54 PM
#2080
if I didn't want to come back to a site, i'd just not come back, I don't ask to be banned