The Civic Hybrid is a nice car, with good mileage. It looks better than a Prius, and has mileage almost as good, although it is not a ‘true hybrid’. You can easily get over 40mpg on a Civic. But there have been reports of battery problems in the Civic, and Honda has now issued a software Product Update.

Instead of fixing the batteries, Honda is using software to make the car dumber. Honda even admits they are (1) idling the gas motor less, (2) eliminating the ‘idle stop’ more often, and (3) using the battery less. I am taking this right off of the letter that Honda recently sent to Civic owners.

If you use the battery less, then by definition you will get worse mileage. Honda does no care about your mileage, and it shows.

Their history is very spotty for these kind of technologies. Their insight hybrid came before the Toyota Prius, but they just gave up on it. They had a hybrid Accord, and they gave up on that too. And their new Insight, the one that looks like a Prius but has worse mileage, is doubly disappointing – not only is it a copy on the outside, but its not a true hybrid – it is what you call a ‘mild hybrid’. It never runs on battery power alone, the way a Prius can. To me this is a very useless car, I dont see any reason this car exists.

Now they are dumbing down the Civic. I am very disappointed in Honda.

We think this is good news for Volt buyers. Toyota also gives an 8 year warranty, but in California and certain other states you get a 10 year/150,000 warranty on their batteries in the Prius. We are eager to see what they do for a warranty once they release vehicles with larger batteries in a plugin vehicle.

The Chevy Volt is expected to cost around $35,000, and possibly less with incentives.

GM expects the batteries to last longer than 8 years. It will be very interesting to see how long they last, and hopefully all such batteries will be recycled, since they are large and have toxic components.

PreOrder your Volt today!

These rumors include:

- A small minivan type of car, in a five or seven seat version
- Five Door hatchback, for the European market
- Couple version of the current Prius

There is also a better battery coming for the Prius.

We would like to see a small pickup version of the Prius, and Plugin versions in every market category. Will Toyota be the only car company to deliver these cars?

A plugin hybrid can get 100 MPG or more. You just have to remember to plug it in each night before you go to bed. The cost of such a nighttime ‘fillup’ is less than $1/gallon. But a plugin car also has the amazing distinction of potentially getting CLEANER as it gets older; because, power plants will (hopefully) be getting cleaner. No other kind of car can make this claim.

If cannot plugin the car then it can run just fine on its gas motor. So its great for long trips too. And if you lose power in your house, you can use a plugin car to power your house! It can act like a generator.

Plugin Hybrids cost more up front to buy, but they cost less to operate, and they save on carbon emissions too; they are greener than almost any other car. Part of the attraction of a Plugin Hybrid is that the electricity they use for charging is 98% produced by US sources; if you drive a gas only car, most of your energy comes from foreign oil.

So if its important to you to support American, then buy a Plugin Hybrid car as soon as you can!

Toyota plans to introduce a plugin Prius soon; hopefully, this will appear by 2010.   A plugin hybrid is plugged in to the AC outlet your wall, usually at night, to charge up the batteries before you drive.   A lot of people are waiting, and hoping.  And once this car is introduced, the hobbyist can make modifications to have larger and longer-lasting batteries, and more range.

General Motors has talked for years about the Chevy Volt.  We are very interested to see one; they are not yet in the showrooms.   Most likely GM will price the Volt too high, so that few people will buy it.  Also, it seems likely that GM will not offer battery options.   We would like to see different battery sizes, so that some consumers who have a shorter daily commute, can choose a smaller battery, and thus save money on their purchase of the car.  However it does not seem like GM will be offering battery options.

Hybrid technology was invented in the US, at a college called UC Davis.  But GM, Ford, and other American auto makers did not care.  Only Toyota saw the real potential, and we thank Toyota for the Prius.   I would love to see American car companies make more effort, but only time will tell.  While there are American hybrids now, it still feels like American companies are only doing this to promote an image; it does not yet feel like there is a commitment to these new technologies across the whole corporation.

We will be doing reviews of hybrids, plugin hybrids, and will report on new developments as well.

We are big fans of the Toyota Prius!