10/24/2011 - TORRANCE, Calif.

Honda will debut two all-new models, the 2012 CR-V and 2013 Fit EV, at the Los Angeles Auto Show on November 16th at 1:05 pm PST. As one of the best-selling SUV's in the United States, the fourth-generation 2012 CR-V will showcase new exterior and interior styling, improved fuel economy and added technology features. The all electric zero-emissions Fit EV concept vehicle debuted at last year's Los Angeles Auto Show and the production model will be revealed this year.

The Honda press conference at the Los Angeles Auto Show can be viewed live via webcast at www.hondanews.com.

For high-resolution photos and media information on Honda's current product offerings, please visit www.hondanews.com. Consumer information is available at automobiles.honda.com.

Source;
http://www.hondanews.com/channels/corporate-headlines/releases/honda-to-debut-two-all-new-models-at-the-los-angeles-auto-show

Check out the Honda Insight section on Honda Japan’s website and you’ll be greeted by the teaser image above, which seems to indicate that an Insight with a larger 1.5 liter i-VTEC IMA engine will be available soon. So far, most Honda hybrids including the Honda Insight sold here in Malaysia use the 1.3 liter system, while the 1.5 liter system is reserved for the sporty Honda CR-Z.

A larger more powerful system in the Insight would certainly be welcome for those looking for a little more fun in their green motoring, but do not want to go for the 3-door body of the CR-Z. With the hybrid tax exemptions just recently extended by the Malaysian government, perhaps Honda Malaysia can introduce this 1.5 liter variant of the Honda Insight as well? I’m sure there’s a market!

Source;
http://paultan.org/2011/10/11/honda-insight-with-1-5-liter-ima-system-to-debut-soon/

Australia high performance car manufacturer Holden Special Vehicles is pleased to announce the launch of its new E-Series 3, with a lot of Australia's first production car, and internal improvements to the range of HSV.


New HSV enhanced driver interface (EDI), which runs through the vehicle's performance data directly from a touch screen.

Liquid Propane Injection (LPI) is the first system of its kind in a production car in Australia, and is optional on all models except for the Clubsport R8 Tourer.



Blind Side HSV new alert box (SBZA) is optional on all models of the E3 - and is standard on the Grange.

In addition, technological innovations, the HSV has greatly increased the number of unique interior and updates Series 3, including:





"Oracle" new board

New model specific ID stainless steel plate on the center console

New bi-point cut seats in the GTS and Senator Signature, and a new tourism color Rosso.

New indicators cabin

Finishes piano black center console and steering wheel

The final stand-out aspect of the E-Series 3-Series is a range of new standard features offered on all models HSV, specifically:

Advanced Driver Interface (EDI)

Reversing camera behind the reversing radar

Satellite Navigation

Touch Screen Radio iPod connectivity



HSV Managing Director Phil Harding believes that the new E3 region has reached a new level of sophistication and continues the company's long history of innovation.

"We need the E3 region of HSV is an example of the passion for innovation and determination to bring world-class engineering and vehicles," he said.

"Just look at the IDE, LPI, and HSV SBZA know is passionate about creating and building high performance cars road.

"More and more of our customers show more interest in new technologies and expressed the desire for single points of difference in their vehicles.

"The combination of new technologies, elegant interior improvements and a continued focus on all-round performance strengthens the position of HSV as the ultimate in Australian performance cars did."

Honda's Dream Factory has put together a list of 'cultural engineers' - people who embody the Honda philosophy of pushing forward and venturing into the unknown. Photograph: Katelyn Downs Photography/Getty Images/Flickr RF

Set up in honour of the philosophies of the Honda founder, Soichiro Honda, the Dream Factory is all about ­inspiration.

"Mr Honda's beliefs run right through the company that he ­created," explains Steve Kirk, ­Honda's communications manager, and part of the team behind the Dream Factory. "For example, Mr Honda believed that success is 99% failure; in other words, he wanted the people who worked for him to keep trying, not to fear getting something wrong because they would get in trouble with the ­management, but to feel free to dream dreams and try the ­impossible. He said: 'We only have one future, and it will be made of dreams if we have the courage to challenge convention.'"

The Dream Factory is a logical extension of that philosophy, searching out "cultural engineers" who embody the Honda philosophy of pushing forward and venturing into the unknown. "We wanted people who were leaders, who were ­inspirational to others, who also ­celebrate the power of dreams," says Kirk.

Honda put together a panel to search out possible candidates for the Dream Factory, and then brought them all together last spring.

"That was when the fireworks went off. It was really extraordinary to see all these innovators come together and immediately start ­connecting, start thinking of ways in which their work might intersect." For Kirk and his team, the real power of the Dream Factory began with that moment.

The Cultural Engineers
Dr Kevin Fong has been taking science by the scruff of the neck since setting up the Space Medicine module at University College London, aged just 28. Now working as an anaesthetist, Fong brings the wonders of modern technology to a wider audience through TV and radio, recently presenting programmes about NASA, the frontiers of heart surgery and life in the universe.

Benedict Radcliffe loves to turn familiar objects such as cars or trainers inside out so that viewers are not quite sure what they are looking at. Working in collaboration with artists and designers including Ron Arad and Patrick Cox, he recently created a series of bikes that quite literally reinvented the wheel. Agents of Change is a global collective of artists with a graffiti background who produce work based as much on materials and situation as on some artistic masterplan. Innovative techniques and cutting-edge ideas mean their work stays true to its roots.

Mark Stevenson wanted to know "what next?" In search of an answer, he travelled the world and spoke to transhumanists (who plan to live forever), toured a space plane, discovered nanotechnology and had a few thoughts on climate change, overpopulation and resource crisis along the way. The result is his book An Optimist's Tour of the Future.

Chris Wheeler loves making a loud noise – and as artistic director of the Heritage Orchestra (HO), working with conductor Jules Buckley, he's spent the past seven years doing just that. Half band, half orchestra, the HO plays cutting-edge, experimental gigs, but always with a focus on entertainment.

David Hieatt founder of ethical clothing company Howies, wants to put people's ideas together, so he has started by putting people together. The Do Lectures started in 2008, and since then have brought a cocktail of chefs, designers, fishermen, inventors, ecologists, osteopaths, builders and more to Cardigan in Wales for four days of talking, eating and listening. It's an annual event in the US now too; people seem to want to talk.

Kevin Harman likes to create art out of what some might call chaos. He rearranges skips, breaks windows, steals doormats and is often right on the edge of what is acceptable. For him, that's the whole point: how else do you force people to think and look at their own actions without pushing them outside their comfort zone?

Katy Dawe & Oliver Hemsley had been friends for many years, but when Oliver was confined to a wheelchair after an unprovoked and vicious stabbing, they began to work together on Art Against Knives. It's morphed from a one-off show – with work donated by Tracey Emin, Cordelia Parker and many others – to a much longer-term project aiming to engage with young people in troubled areas.

Fabien Riggall aims to bring independent cinema to as many people as possible. He created Future Shorts, a worldwide network for short films which showcases wonderful, brain-addling stuff from countries as far afield as Finland, Romania and Paraguay. His latest project, the Next Generation, is a unique multi-country film festival; viewers will be watching in Austria and Australia, Iceland and Indonesia, Poland and the Philippines, the UK and the USA.

Simon Berry had an extraordinary idea. He knew that Coca-Cola can be bought almost anywhere in the world, and he also knew that in some countries in Africa 20% of children die before reaching the age of five. So why not tap into Coca-Cola's distribution network to deliver vital medicines? Years of work have nearly brought this plan to fruition; Berry continues to push.

VOTE FOR ANOTHER CULTURAL ENGINEER
Honda is on the lookout for another cultural engineer to join its Dream Factory and we are giving you the opportunity to vote for that person from a shortlist of five. Once chosen, all of the engineers will be invited to two Guardian hack days on 19 and 20 November to exchange ideas with the Guardian team. Vote and you could win £250 in Amazon vouchers, plus tickets to the event to see these innovators in action.

Source;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/honda-dream-factory/honda-cultural-engineers-changing-the-world?newsfeed=true

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co., Japan’s third- largest carmaker, will start selling a hybrid version of its Freed minivan tomorrow as it seeks to boost sales among domestic consumers looking for more fuel-efficient cars.

The hybrid Freed will start from 2.18 million yen ($28,700), according to a statement by the Tokyo-based company today. The new gas-electric version has a fuel-economy rating of 24 kilometers per liter, compared with 17 kilometers per liter for the conventional gasoline model, according to Honda.

“With the new Freed, we hope to attract the increasing number of ‘downsizers’ in the Japanese market,” Sho Minekawa, a managing officer at Honda, said today at a press conference in Tokyo. “We expect to get half of our sales from hybrid models by the end of March next year.”

The company aims to sell 10,000 units of the Freed hybrid minivan a month, Minekawa said. Honda will begin selling a revamped Insight hybrid starting Nov. 11 from 1.9 million yen and a new minicar from mid-December called the “N Box.”

Honda shares rose 2.75 percent to 2,393 yen at the close of trading in Tokyo. The stock has slid 26 percent this year, compared with a 15 percent drop for the broader Topix index.

--Editors: Chua Kong Ho, Frank Longid

Source;
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-27/honda-targets-sales-in-japan-with-hybrid-freed-new-minivan.html

Interesting....
SustainableBusiness.com News

South Korea's electronics giant LG announced it will invest $6.83 billion in green business sectors by 2015.

The conglomerate says the investments - in electric vehicle batteries, LED lighting, solar PV and water treatment technologies - will generate $8.4 billion in revenue, while creating 10,000 green jobs around the world. It will also boost business for about 660 small and midsized enterprises in its supply chain.

About a third of the investment will be in lithium batteries for electric vehicles (by 2013). It's also planning to get into the solar polysilicon business by 2014.

Its LG Chem division says its goal is to be the world's top lithium battery manufacturer, taking a 25% share by 2015. It currently supplies Li batteries for GM's Chevy Volt and Opel Ampera. And it's working with GM on electric vehicle development.

LG Innotek, which makes LEDs, is looking for a 10% global market share. Its vertical manufacturing process makes all the components including chips, modules and packaging. Its flagship company, LG Electronics, will expand solar manufacturing from its current level of 300 megawatts (MW) to 1,000 megawatts by 2014. There too, they expect to be the global leader by 2015. They entered the US solar market in 2010.

In water treatment, LG recently acquired specialist Daewoo ENTEC, allowing it to offer a "total water treatment solution." Through the LG-Hitachi joint venture, the two compaies will collaborate on developing new technologies and services for the huge water treatment market, valued at over $430 billion a year.

"With the market expected to grow at an annual rate of five per cent due to increased pollution and the effects of climate change, we see the water treatment business as a crucial component of LG's future success," says Young-ha, Lee, CEO of LG Electronics Home Appliance Company.

Last year, LG announced it would invest $17.8 billion in green product development to lower greenhouse gas emissions 40% from 2009 levels by 2020.Its competitor, Samsung, is also invest heavily in green with $5 billion in investments by 2013.

South Korea has set an emissions reduction target of 30% by 2020. At the beginning of the worldwide recession, the country was widely praised for allocating about 80% of its stimulus spending toward green-oriented projects.

Source;
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/22947

Honda has been working on a next gen Beat and here could be one redition of the car....
Source;
http://www.burlappcars.com/2011/09/hondas-miata-fighter-coming-up.html

Source;
www.burlappcars.com

Honda is recalling more than 300,000 Pilot SUVs built between 2008 and 2011 to fix a safety belt defect, according to a document the carmaker filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this week.

The recall of Pilot SUVs from the 2009 through 2011 model years comes about a week after Honda announced it was recalling some 100,000 CR-V and CR-Z vehicles within the United States to fix defects.

A potential defect in the way safety belts are stitched together in certain Pilot SUVs built from March 13, 2008 through Aug. 30, 2011 requires the recall of 310,773 vehicles, according to reports.

Seatbelts on the affected Pilot SUVs may have incomplete stitching where the end of the driver's and front passenger's lap belts attach, which could cause those belts to break off from their anchor webbing during a crash, increasing the risk of injury, Honda said.

The carmaker's dealers are set to inspect safety belts on recalled Pilot SUV for the defect and will replace them free of charge if needed. The recall is scheduled to begin in early October and owners of the vehicles in question can call Honda's customer service department at (800) 999-1099 or visit Recalls.Honda.com.

Honda announced plans last weekend to voluntarily recall 80,111 CR-V vehicles from the 2006 model year within the United State to replace the power windows master switch, while the carmaker said it would also recall 5,626 CR-Z vehicles from the 2011 model year to update the software that controls the hybrid electric motor.

The CR-V issue involves the design of the power window master switch, which can allow residue from interior cleaners to accumulate. Over time, that buildup can cause the electrical contacts to degrade and may lead to a fire, Honda said.

The CR-Z issue, meanwhile, involves a specific case, where the gas engine stalled, while the hybrid's battery is in a very low state of charge and the transmission is engaged. In this case, the transmission might reverse itself, Honda said, so that if the car is in a forward gear the car might actually roll backwards. That, of course, could lead to a crash.

The problems affecting the recalled CR-V and CR-Z vehicles haven't resulted in any injuries or deaths. Honda said it had received two complaints about detached seatbelts in the recalled Pilot SUVs, one in the spring of 2010 and one this year.

UPDATE: Subaru also announced two recalls over the weekend that affect some 400,000 vehicles. Subaru is recalling Imprezas sold between 2002 and 2007, Foresters sold between 2003 and 2008, and Saab 9-2x vehicles sold between 2005 and 2006, in order to replace potentially rusty brackets on the underside of the vehicles.
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