Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Shop Talk Podcast: Update from Honda's Todd Mittleman on Green Cars

We talked to Todd Mittleman of Honda last spring about Honda's environmentally-focused cars, the Civic GX natural gas vehicle and the FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle (which, at the time, had not yet been released).

Well, a lot has changed in a year. The FCX is now out, and that's the least of the news since then. People have reined in spending in many ways, not least of which is their utter reluctance to purchase a car from any manufacturer.

So how do green vehicles fit into Honda's strategy now? We brought Todd back for another discussion. Podcast file: todd-mittleman-mar-2009 (21:37).

Highlights:
0:25 Description of Civic GX and FCX Clarity
4:15 Positioning of "green" vehicles in current economic climate
8:20 Does the US government's support of alternate energy help the GX and Clarity?
10:45 Positioning of the new hybrid Insight versus the GX
14:17 More on the FCX Clarity
15:50 First customer feedback on the Clarity

(Photo: the Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle)

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