Honda Small Hybrid Sports?
Not exactly the sexiest name ever attached to a concept car, but the beast delivers love at first glance. Especially when one considers that the point of this styling exercise is to engender `green grins´.
The words Hybrid and Sports probably do not readily co-exist in most people's car consciousness. But stop to think for a moment - the electric motors in a hybrid system is all about torque. And instant torque at that. The Lexus RX400h and Honda Accord Hybrid have shown that a system can be set up for thrills other than watching your average mpg inch up. But the size of most hybrid vehicles and the extra options thrown in to help justify the premium price conspire to take away some of that potential liveliness. In the sports car world, less is more.
Honda is using this pretty little sportster to prepare us for a future where we can achieve a degree of petro-economical independence while screaming around corners and rocketing away from green lights. We can extend the time between visits to the gas station and stay out on the road because we are just having so much fun. If any car company can achieve this, it will be Honda - the company that brought us the Civic Si, Prelude, and NSX.
Send your letters to Tokyo now - we need this car.
(See IntelliChoice's latest Hybrid survey.)
Photo courtesy of Automobile Magazine
