HondaJet wrote: Can anyone please ID the cars from left to right? Thanks.
JP's current hybrid line-up, from left to right:
- CR-Z,
- Fit Hybrid,
- Fit Shuttle (aka Fit Wagon) Hybrid,
- Insight,
- Freed (6-7 seater minivan) Hybrid,
- Freed Spike (5 seater minivan) Hybrid
Thanks guys. It looks like a very broad spectrum of choices covered by Honda, from 'sporty', city use, sedan to minivans. If you desire a hybrid the choices are there.
I wonder how does Honda's lineup compare to Toyota or Nissan in Japan. In the USA, Toyota has a lot, including SUVs and Nissan has some too. I guess the US buying public still sees hybrids as an alternative. In Japan, it looks like hybrids are the mainstream.
HondaJet wrote: Thanks guys. It looks like a very broad spectrum of choices covered by Honda, from 'sporty', city use, sedan to minivans. If you desire a hybrid the choices are there.
I wonder how does Honda's lineup compare to Toyota or Nissan in Japan. In the USA, Toyota has a lot, including SUVs and Nissan has some too. I guess the US buying public still sees hybrids as an alternative. In Japan, it looks like hybrids are the mainstream.
JP market in brief:
- Toyota controls ~50% of JP market excluding mini-cars, Honda has a stronghold in the small-car & minivan segments, Nissan does better on the higher-end of the spectrum. Follow far behind Subaru, Mazda and Mitsubishi.
- Mini-cars (660cc ones) are dominated by Daihatsu (of which Toyota owns a commanding stake) and Suzuki, both of which have "line-ups" of such cars. Honda follows with 2 well-selling models, and recently Nissan is making a case of its own by rebranding Suzuki models. Again Mitsu, Subi follow well behind.
- Hybrids top the sales-charts (Prius & Fit) but still too few to dominate the market. For Honda though, they represented 33% of 2011 YTD sales, and expected to reach 50% in 2012 with the introduction of the Freed hybrid this month. Nissan has a single super-high-end model (the Fuga, marketed as top-of-the-line Infiniti in the US), and Toyota has quite a few but all relatively expensive (Prius being cheapest). That should change with the introduction of the PriusC early 2012, and Honda's larger hybrids coming later. No other makers have hybrids yet, but auto-idle stop systems are slowly becoming the norm.
- Foreign makers sales are anecdotal in raw numbers, but German luxury makers make good business around here.
I'm pretty sure he is the one making the final statement, believe he is as well the singer indeed. In Honda's website he is quoted as "narrator" (link)
PS: I believe Mr. Lennon has some kind of long term PR contract for the Freed. He has been doing all the Freed adverts since it was released, and this video was released with the arrival of the Freed Hybrid, for which he also did the commercials. I posted a few of them down here, including an interview he did on the song he wrote for the original Freed commercial, but obviously you can find more in youtube (link)
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