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Tag: Honda Fit EV

  • Honda Fit Named Yahoo! Value Car of the Year

    The automotive industry is now evolving at fast rate and car manufacturers are now racing to implement new technology into their latest models. New companies such as Tesla are gaining accolades for their designs while many established car companies are just beginning to embrace electric and smart car tech.

    For Honda, then, it must be a relief that their budget Fit vehicle is keeping up with the competition. This week the Honda Fit was named Yahoo! Automotive’s 2015 Value Car of the Year.

    The publication said it gave the award to the Fit because the car simply packed-in more features than other cars in its class for a much lower price. Yahoo! Automotive Editor-at-Large Alex Lloyd called the vehicle “quirky and cute” when describing his enjoyable test drive of the Fit.

    Yahoo! reviewed a $21,590 version of the Fit that included Honda’s navigation option. The car was the lowest-priced of the publication’s nominees for value car of the year. Even lower-priced versions of the fit include features such as Bluetooth integration and a rearview camera. The publication also commented that the car’s interior features “seem less cheap than they must be.”

    Aside from the nice features, Yahoo! Automotive editors pointed to the Fit’s chassis and suspension as factors that helped make the car their number one choice. The site described the car’s handling as “fun and tossable,” though it did note the car can be noisy.

    The Honda Fit is also up for AutoGuide.com’s Reacder Choice Car of the Year award, facing off against vehicles such as the Ford Mustang and the Toyota Camry.

    The Honda Fit may have taken the top spot for value cars, but Yahoo! chose something a bit more expensive for its overall best car of 2015. In contrast to highly recognizable past winners such as the Tesla Model S or the Corvette Stingray, the publication this year named the Volkswagen Golf GTI as 2015’s best car. The GTI beat out powerhouse and luxury models such as the Dodge Challenger Hellcat, BMW M235i, and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class for the title.

  • Honda Fit EV Gets 118 Miles Per Gallon

    Honda Fit EV Gets 118 Miles Per Gallon

    If you are tired of paying those high gas prices, but are unswayed by today’s hybrids and electrics, you might soon rethink your pessimism.

    The new 2013 Handa Fit EV has just been given the world’s best fuel efficiency rating by the Environmental Protection Agency at 118 Miles Per Gallon with an unprecedented consumption rating of 29 kilowatt hours (kWh) per 100 miles.

    The car is all electric, so the MPG is determined by an EPA methodology that compares the amount of energy used, with the equivalent in gasoline of how much it would take to run the same car.

    A years worth of electricity to power the car is estimated to cost $500. Wow. Compare that to the estimate for a conventional automatic gasoline Fit at $1,500. And that’s considered to be a fuel efficient vehicle.

    The Fit EV can go 82 miles before a recharge, more than enough to get to and from work for most people. That can be compared to the Ford Focus Electric, which gets 76 miles on a single “tank”, or the Nissan Leaf which caps out at 73 miles. The fit can be charged in three hours on a 240 volt system, putting out as much as 123 horsepower.

    It wil be available in California and Oregon this summer, but east coasters will have to wait until next year to try them out.

    As someone who has never driven a hybrid or an electric, I must say I am intrigued about the incredibly high fuel efficiency rating. With these high ratings, it is strange that better batteries have not been engineered to last longer and deliver more output.

    I’ve also heard the accelerating beyond 30 Mph is incredibly slow and driving at higher speeds reduces battery life quite a bit. Even using the heater or air conditioning can have a tremendous impact. High MPG or no, I think better, longer lasting batteries are going to be the key to getting people excited about electric vehicles.