After losing billions of dollars from its discontinued 0 Series electric car platform, Honda is betting big on hybrids. The automaker’s next-generation hybrid system, dubbed simply “Honda Hybrid,” is taking shape quickly, with the first cars powered by it scheduled to hit the road next year. No fewer than 15 new models will launch globally by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2030.
Honda said most of its next-gen hybrids are coming to North America, based on a newly developed architecture that ups the ante when it comes to body rigidity and weight reduction. What’s more, a newly developed electric all-wheel drive (e-AWD) system is in the cards, which is likely to borrow a thing or two from the gutted 0 Series program.
Details are slim for now, but traditionally, an e-AWD system uses a rear electric motor that’s not physically connected to the engine and gearbox at the front of the car. Volvo’s plug-in hybrids are built like this, and it enables them to drive on electric power alone without having to deal with transmission losses.
In the case of a traditional hybrid, however, the high-voltage battery has a significantly lower capacity than on a plug-in hybrid, so it’s unlikely that we’ll see Honda’s new models drive more than a few hundred feet on electric power alone.
That said, the Japanese automaker has made it clear that fuel efficiency and the joy of driving are the two most important characteristics of its new hybrid system.
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