Production hybrid version of CR-Z will be coming in 2010. As shown at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show, the CR-Z concept is the closest we’ll get to a coupe version of the Jazz. It will make another appearance at the Geneva International Motor Show in March, alongside the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, as featured in Honda’s latest TV advert and available on lease terms to US drivers.
Said to be the sucessor to the long-departed CRX coupe, the CR-Z maybe a concept but it is set for production in a similar form (heard that before….) from 2009. It is not known as if the CR-Z production will use the Global Small Car Platform as used by the Jazz and Euro Civic, but it is possible the car will use Honda’s IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) - better known as the hybrid system used in the Civic Hybrid and Insight models.
The CR-Z takes styling clues from both the 1980’s CRX and the Insight models.
As the European market is the main target for this model, Honda intend to collect input from the teams which tailored the Euro Civic and Mk2 Jazz for Europe.
Following the demise of the Ford Puma in 2002, and the reinvention of the likes of the Vauxhall Tigra as a convertible with a folding metal roof, the UK market lacks a proper small coupe. The nearest true coupe is the larger Hyundai Coupe, which with the introduction of the series IV model next year is likely to grow in size. However, if the CR-Z only contains Hybrid power, it’s likely to be another rarity like the Honda Insight. It will need some decent petrol engines to sit alongside the IMA version, with the 1.8-litre, i-VTEC being an ideal choice, combined maybe with the 1.5-litre from the new Jazz, depending on weight issues.
Even so, it should inject some much-needed excitment in the Honda range considering the evolutionary approach of the new Accord and Jazz and the ageing (by 2010) Civic models.
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