Hybrid Trend Part 2

I remember my dad told me years ago that Toyota is the king in Japan and Honda have a small market share there. I am not sure how true that is but in Malaysia, Honda is still the No.2 brand. Being No.2 means that Honda is not far behind with the hybrid line of cars from Toyota. Indeed the competition is high and Honda brought in some hybrid cars from Japan to Malaysia. The 2 hybrid cars are the Honda Insight and Honda CR-Z.

Honda Insight
Similar to Toyota Prius, the Insight is also a 5 door hatchback with similar shape. However, it has a smaller 1.3l engine assisted with Honda's IMA battery with a total of 95 bhp. The Insight sold like pancakes since its launching beating Toyota at the hybrid game because the Insight is cheaper at below RM100,000 and have a smaller engine. Smaller engine is a good thing when the Malaysian government based road-tax by the engine size meaning cheaper road tax. It all seems good but Toyota's sales is not pressured by that fact because cheaper cars might give an image of a lower quality car. Luckily that only affects a small percentage of the consumers. Personally, it attracts despite the cheaper price and the smaller engine where even the compact Toyota Prius C have a bigger engine. On the outside the facelift Insight looks not great but still impressive and the interior looks luxurious enough but nothing new.

Honda CR-Z
The Honda CR-Z is a hybrid that truly change the hybrid impression for consumers especially the young ones. It is a sub-compact coupe and has a bigger engine than the Insight, a 1.5l engine with IMA creating 120 bhp. What is so special about this hybrid car is the overall image it carries. It is a coupe that translates into a sport or performance car for many minds and being the only hybrid car in Malaysia to have a 6 speed manual transmission, it instantaneously transform the CR-Z into a modern day sports car with the benefit of good fuel consumption and good to the environment. The IMA battery assisted the 1.5l engine giving it good performance but only when the battery is fully charged.

Now, in my opinion the CR-Z really changed the opinion of a hybrid car for the average drivers. How you may ask ? In part 1, I mentioned that most of the people perceive hybrid cars to have a image of low performance, bad design and expensive to maintain. To a certain point, those might be true but the CR-Z totally changed that. I have personally seen a CR-Z in action. It has high acceleration and could bring car bigger than it to shame with its low weight. This bring many enthusiast to pay attention to the CR-Z with turbo and supercharger kits developed for it. In Japan, there is a Mugen version with a supercharger in it and this proves the position that CR-Z is in the eyes of enthusiast. Many is confidence with the potential it holds simply because of its brand and the long line of Type Rs. The price of around RM116,000 for the manual and RM120,000 for the CVT version is cheap for a performance car and expensive for an average car. It certainly helps Honda selling them and with many young drivers wanting a sporty ride, it increases the hybrid market share.

Others
The 5 cars I mentioned in part 1 and part 2 are hybrid cars that existed purely as a hybrid car and not a variant of existing cars. However, there are more hybrid cars available in Malaysia than these 5 cars but they are based on other cars. Honda has Civic Hybrid and Jazz Hybrid which is just a variant for the Civic and Jazz. Porsche has a hybrid version of its Panamera and Cayenne and Lexus has hybrid versions of its GS, LS and RX models and many more examples form other makers. These models are not discussed here because firstly these are not a hybrid only cars and secondly, these have huge engines that cost expensive road tax. Purchasing these models does not contribute much to the trend because of the small amount.

Honda's Emblem

Toyota's Emblem

In conclusion, in the 21st century the hybrid trend can no longer be ignored and the many are starting to accept the fact that we need to care more about the environment. In addition, hybrid cars are no longer in a stereotype and have proven to be quite a vehicle as can be seen when big car makers invest and make a hybrid car. Among these 5 choices, for luxury it is the Lexus CT200h, for sportiness the Honda CR-Z and for the other 3 it has to be with the budget constraints of each person.