Finally after 12 years and 11 months of being in the market, Honda’s hybrid vehicles had finally reached a historical milestone of one million vehicles being sold worldwide at the end of September 2012. Although this was not a large figure compared to Toyota’s achievement where they had sold four million hybrids back in May this year, Honda is nevertheless making a great progress in being a major player in the hybrid business.
Honda first ventured into the hybrid scene with their Insight MK1 in Japan back in November 1999. With a fuel economy of 35km/liter, it was considered as the world’s highest fuel economy rating compared to the other mass-produced petrol-powered cars back then. And now in 2012, Honda has a myriad of hybrids ready to cater the wide variety of road users today.
Their journey to the one million-mark was not easy, and it took time and a better technology for them to be accepted by more consumers. It took Honda from April 2005 to May 2007 to increase the number of sales from 100,000 units to 200,000 units. But the numbers then rose up with the additions of some fresh and sporty units like the CR-Z and the Fit Hybrid.
Honda had also started producing hybrids outside Japan starting from the Acura ILX Hybrid in the States in May and the Jazz Hybrid in Thailand in July, with Malaysia being the next in target to manufacture the Jazz Hybrid at the end of 2012. They are also aiming to further advance their current one-motor IMA hybrid system to achieve the “number one fuel economy among hybrid vehicles”.
