Word: honda
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...that the company claims will perform like a V6, with a 25% improvement in fuel economy (it will be sold in only 45 states because of antismog restrictions on diesel passenger vehicles). Lexus plans to deliver a hybrid version of its luxury RX330 SUV, the 400h, this fall. And Honda says by year's end it will sell a hybrid edition of its V6 Accord that will outperform the standard version in fuel economy and pickup. "We want to sell it on the basis of advanced technology and performance," says Honda spokesman Andy Boyd. That's a novel pitch...
...moment, $2-per-gal. gas has sent the sale of hybrids zooming like a roadster. April was Honda's best month for its hybrid Civic (3,341 sold), and that followed a record-setting March. Toyota has a 20,000-order backlog for its critically acclaimed Prius and predicts a 50% sales increase over last year, to 50,000 units. All told, hybrid sales are expected to more than double this year, to 100,000. That's a tiny fraction of the U.S. market for new-vehicle sales, forecast to be around 17 million this year. But it's still...
Automakers have strong incentives not to ramp up hybrid production too quickly. Hybrids are technologically complex and costly and require the retraining of service technicians. Toyota and Honda insist they make money from each sale, but those profits are meager compared with what they earn from conventional cars and light trucks, especially their luxury brands. The Big Three--Ford, GM and Chrysler--are even more reliant on SUVs and big pickups for profits, and if hybrids eat into sales of conventional models, the industry would be maiming a critical cash cow. So while auto executives talk of a greener future...
...sense that nobody is panicking about this, and that makes me a little nervous," says Steve Girsky, senior automotive analyst at Morgan Stanley. It has happened before. In the 1970s, when gas prices soared, the Big Three were caught flat-footed with large, fuel-hungry cars, allowing Honda, Nissan and Toyota to swoop in and grab market share. If it happens again, the pain will be shared by Japanese manufacturers. Toyota is planning to ramp up production of its full-size pickup, the Tundra, with a plant under construction in San Antonio, Texas. And Nissan just bet on a line...
...newfound wealth. Today, hanging out in his rented apartment in the capital, Pac-Man is wearing two fat gold watches - one of which, he notes proudly, cost some $15,000. He owns two houses: one in his hometown of General Santos City, the other in Davao. He owns a Honda SUV, a Ford Expedition and a Toyota Tamaraw. And he has a big - and expensive - collection of admirers. Filipinos tend to have unusually large extended families, but Pacquiao's posse has expanded of late, seemingly at the same rate as his fight purses, which hit $700,000 for the battle...