All-​​new hybrid model set to go on sale in the U.S. this summer

DETROIT, Jan. 11, 2010 – The all-​​new 2011 Honda CR-​​Z sport hybrid coupe, mak­ing its U.S. pro­duc­tion debut at the North Amer­i­can Inter­na­tional Auto Show in Detroit, intro­duces sleek styling and sporty han­dling to the hybrid seg­ment, Amer­i­can Honda Motor Co., Inc., announced today.

“The CR-​​Z is a per­sonal sport hybrid coupe for peo­ple with a spirit of adven­ture and an ele­vated sense of respon­si­bil­ity toward the envi­ron­ment,” said John Mendel, exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent of sales for Amer­i­can Honda. “It’s the first hybrid designed to max­i­mize style and fun, in addi­tion to effi­ciency and economy.”

Set to go on sale late sum­mer in the U.S., the CR-​​Z is pow­ered by a 1.5-liter i-​​VTEC engine with Honda’s com­pact and light­weight Inte­grated Motor Assist (IMA) hybrid-​​electric sys­tem. The two-​​passenger CR-​​Z intro­duces a new three-​​mode drive sys­tem that allows the dri­ver to select between Sport, Econ (Econ­omy) and Nor­mal dri­ving modes.

The exterior’s dis­tinc­tive “one-​​motion” wedge form orig­i­nates from its low-​​slung hood to form a broad for­ward stance. A side pro­file with a deeply inset belt­line con­veys a dynamic ten­sion, while the short wheel­base and large, wide front grille accents the vehicle’s ath­letic presence.

The futur­is­ti­cally styled inte­rior offers a high-​​tech appear­ance and ergonom­i­cally intu­itive con­trols. Instru­ment panel meters illu­mi­nate with a three-​​dimensional, vibrant blue color theme result­ing in a multi-​​layered appear­ance. Set against a motif of tex­tured black mate­ri­als and aluminum-​​style trim accents, the upper por­tion of the dash­board extends toward the dri­ver to pro­vide a wrap-​​around cock­pit envi­ron­ment. The pas­sen­ger zone offers an open, com­fort­able space. Pre­mium sport-​​oriented cloth seats are designed to pro­vide excel­lent lat­eral sup­port along with every­day dri­ving com­fort. A mid-​​ship con­sole behind the front seats opti­mizes cargo space. A hard-​​shell sep­a­ra­tor can be closed to cre­ate addi­tional hid­den storage.

The two trim lev­els include the well-​​equipped CR-​​Z and the feature-​​rich CR-​​Z EX. A six-​​speed man­ual trans­mis­sion is stan­dard equip­ment and a Con­tin­u­ously Vari­able Trans­mis­sion (CVT) is avail­able. Stan­dard fea­tures on the CR-​​Z include Vehi­cle Sta­bil­ity Assist, an AM/​FM/​CD/​USB audio sys­tem with six speak­ers, auto­matic cli­mate con­trol, power win­dows and door locks, remote entry, cruise con­trol, and more. The CR-​​Z EX adds, High-​​Intensity Dis­charge (HID) Head­lights with Auto-​​On/​Off, fog lights, a 360-​​Watt AM/​FM/​CD pre­mium audio sys­tem with seven speak­ers includ­ing sub­woofer, Blue­tooth® Hands­FreeLink®, per­fo­rated leather-​​wrapped steer­ing wheel, cen­ter con­sole with an arm­rest and stor­age com­part­ment, and more. The CR-​​Z EX is avail­able with the Honda Satellite-​​Linked Nav­i­ga­tion System[1] with voice recognition.

The CR-​​Z rep­re­sents the sixth unique ver­sion of Honda’s orig­i­nal IMA tech­nol­ogy since the launch of the 2000 Insight, the first hybrid vehi­cle avail­able in North Amer­ica in Decem­ber 1999. The foun­da­tion of the CR-Z’s hybrid pow­er­train is a 4-​​cylinder, 16-​​valve, sin­gle over­head cam engine with “intel­li­gent” Vari­able Valve Tim­ing and Lift Elec­tronic Con­trol (i-​​VTEC) that receives addi­tional power from the IMA system’s DC brush­less elec­tric motor. The i-​​VTEC sys­tem con­trols the open­ing and clos­ing of one intake valve per cylin­der to enhance com­bus­tion at low RPMs. The 10-​​kilowatt elec­tric motor assists in accel­er­a­tion and also acts as a gen­er­a­tor dur­ing brak­ing or coast­ing to cap­ture kinetic energy that recharges the 100-​​volt IMA nickel-​​metal hydride bat­tery pack. The gaso­line engine can auto­mat­i­cally turn off dur­ing vehi­cle stops to improve efficiency.

The sys­tem deliv­ers a com­bined peak out­put of 122 horsepower[2] at 6,000 rpm and 128 lb-​​ft. of torque2 at 1,000 to 1,500 rpm (123 lb-​​ft on CVT-​​equipped mod­els). Pre­lim­i­nary fuel econ­omy esti­mates are antic­i­pated to result in a rat­ing of 36 city/​38 high­way miles per gallon[3] on CVT-​​equipped mod­els. Man­ual trans­mis­sion mod­els are antic­i­pated to achieve an EPA-​​estimated fuel econ­omy rat­ing of 31 city/​37 high­way miles per gallon3. The CR-​​Z is rated as an Advanced Tech­nol­ogy Par­tial Zero Emis­sions Vehi­cle (AT-​​PZEV) in states that adhere to Cal­i­for­nia Air Resource Board (CARB) ZEV stan­dards (EPA Tier 2, Bin 2 in all states).

The stan­dard six-​​speed man­ual trans­mis­sion is engi­neered for opti­mal accel­er­a­tion per­for­mance in gears one through five and for opti­mal fuel econ­omy in sixth gear. When start­ing on steep inclines from a stop, hill start assist tem­porar­ily pre­vents the vehi­cle from rolling back­wards dur­ing the moment between releas­ing the brake, depress­ing the throt­tle and releas­ing the clutch (for a dura­tion of approx­i­mately 1.5 sec­onds). The avail­able CVT pro­vides the con­ve­nience of an auto­matic trans­mis­sion with a seam­less tran­si­tion between min­i­mum and max­i­mum ratios, while also keep­ing the engine within an opti­mal RPM range for over­all effi­ciency. To increase the per­for­mance poten­tial of the CVT, pad­dle shifters located on the steer­ing wheel allow the dri­ver to man­u­ally sim­u­late the stepped hold­ing pat­tern. In Sport mode, the pad­dle shifters will hold and main­tain a selected ratio.

The CR-Z’s three-​​mode drive sys­tem allows the dri­ver to select between indi­vid­ual modes of per­for­mance for Sport, Nor­mal and Econ­omy dri­ving styles. The sys­tem is acti­vated via three back­lit but­tons to the left of the steer­ing wheel.

The Sport mode enhances mul­ti­ple vehi­cle sys­tems for per­for­mance includ­ing the engine throt­tle respon­sive­ness, elec­tric power steer­ing effort and the elec­tric motor power assist. The inner ring of the tachome­ter illu­mi­nates red when the vehi­cle is in Sport mode.

Dur­ing Econ mode oper­a­tion, the engine’s respon­sive­ness is tuned for opti­mal econ­omy, the elec­tric motor assist gives pri­or­ity to fuel effi­ciency and the air con­di­tion­ing sys­tem can reduce its over­all load on the engine. The inner ring of the tachome­ter tran­si­tions between blue and green when the vehi­cle is in Econ mode, with the green rep­re­sent­ing more eco­log­i­cal driving.

Nor­mal mode pro­vides stan­dard set­tings for steer­ing, engine response, motor assist and air con­di­tion­ing. The tachome­ter ring remains blue in nor­mal mode. Like the Honda Insight, the CR-​​Z offers an Eco Guide and Eco scor­ing fea­ture to help dri­vers track progress of effi­cient dri­ving styles.

The front MacPher­son strut sus­pen­sion and rear H-​​shaped tor­sion beam sus­pen­sion set­tings are tuned to pro­vide a sporty, solid and dynamic dri­ving expe­ri­ence. All mod­els are equipped with 16x6-​​inch alu­minum wheels with 195/​55 R16 86V tires. Acces­sory 17x7 alloy wheels with 205/​45R17 84V tires with are avail­able. The stan­dard anti-​​lock brak­ing sys­tem (ABS) with elec­tronic brake dis­tri­b­u­tion (EBD) uses ven­ti­lated front discs and solid rear discs. The low vehi­cle height and place­ment of the bat­tery and other hybrid com­po­nents beneath the rear cargo area fur­ther con­tribute to a low cen­ter of grav­ity, which is key to the new CR-Z’s respon­sive, sporty han­dling. Elec­tric power-​​assisted rack-​​and-​​pinion steer­ing enhances steer­ing per­for­mance and improves efficiency.

In addi­tion to being envi­ron­men­tally respon­si­ble, the CR-​​Z demon­strates a com­mit­ment to safety in its design and con­struc­tion. The Advanced Com­pat­i­bil­ity Engi­neer­ing™ (ACE™) body struc­ture helps pro­tect vehi­cle occu­pants in a frontal col­li­sion. Addi­tional safety tech­nolo­gies include stan­dard dual-​​stage, multiple-​​threshold front airbags; stan­dard front-​​side airbags with passenger-​​side Occu­pant Posi­tion Detec­tion Sys­tem (OPDS); side-​​curtain airbags, active head restraints; an anti-​​lock brak­ing sys­tem; a tire pres­sure mon­i­tor­ing sys­tem; and a pedes­trian injury mit­i­ga­tion design in the front of the vehicle.

[1] The Honda Satellite-​​Linked Nav­i­ga­tion Sys­tem™ is avail­able on the CR-​​Z EX in the United States, except Alaska. Please see your Honda dealer for details.

[2] Pre­lim­i­nary esti­mate pro­vided by Honda. Final spec­i­fi­ca­tion is sub­ject to change.

[3] Pre­lim­i­nary EPA mileage esti­mates deter­mined by Honda. Final EPA mileage esti­mates not avail­able at the time of print­ing. Use for com­par­i­son pur­poses only. Do not com­pare to mod­els before 2008. Your actual mileage will vary depend­ing on how you drive and main­tain your vehicle.