{"id":21463,"date":"2017-12-01T12:02:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T16:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=21463"},"modified":"2017-12-01T12:02:41","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T16:02:41","slug":"la-show-honda-clarity-wins-green-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/la-show-honda-clarity-wins-green-prize","title":{"rendered":"LA Show: Honda Clarity wins Green prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2018<\/p>\n<\/div>

With the popular favorite out of the way, the Clarity beat out a field made up entirely of mainstream competitors \u2014 including sibling Honda Accord hybrid. Other contenders were the Toyota Camry hybrid, Nissan Leaf EV and Hyundai Ioniq which nearly matched the Clarity\u2019s versatility with hybrid, plug-in and electric-only models.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Clarity is the car that really looks to the future,\u201d said Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of Green Car Journal which sponsors the award. \u201cIt offers a plug-in hybrid today that anyone can drive conveniently \u2014 but it also offers a hydrogen element that is visionary. With the Clarity platform, Honda can shift production easily depending on which technology is in demand \u2014 and if a hydrogen infrastructure gets built out.<\/p>\n

The Clarity\u2019s national rollout to dealers demonstrates the challenges automakers face as governments from California to France push automakers toward a gasoline-free future. The plug-in, which can travel 47 miles on a full charge, is available nationwide where owners can fill up on gas when the battery runs out of juice. But the electric and hydrogen versions have been limited to California, the only state that has seen significant acceptance of alternate-fuel tech.<\/p>\n

Led by a green consumer culture and big government incentives, battery-powered car sales \u2014 hybrid, electric and hydrogen \u2014 are 9 percent of sales here. Pure EVs alone account for about 2.5 percent.<\/p>\n

In the U.S. as a whole, however, sales of battery vehicles struggle to get over 3 percent, while EV sales are just 1 percent.<\/p>\n

Cogan says government regulation and manufacturer offerings have pushed the market to an electric \u201ctipping point,\u201d especially as speedy models like Tesla have proved \u201celectrification has an inherent ability to increase performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he noted that consumer skepticism still abounds and that electrification is still heavily dependent on government incentives. \u201cThe White House is proposing tax reform that would eliminate federal tax incentives (to buy EVs),\u201d he said. \u201cProof that what happens in D.C. has an impact on vehicles everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

With gas prices low, consumers have defied industry predictions for two decades that hybrid-electrics would catch fire here. Indeed, as automakers rolled out government-compliant EVs here, they have also showed gas-powered SUVs that are popular with buyers. BMW and Subaru, for example, both rolled out their first-ever, three-row SUVs at the LA Show.<\/p>\n

Electrifying large vehicles is difficult because their weight taxes battery range. The full-size Clarity sedan, like Tesla\u2019s large Model S sedan and Model X ute, is the exception to the rule that most EVs have been compacts, including last year\u2019s Green Car winner, the Chevy Bolt EV.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we won because of our strategy to give customers choice,\u201d said Steven Center, vice president of connected and environmental business at American Honda. \u201cThey have different driving and commute requirements and we manage to produce three great choices in one real, five-passenger sedan.\u201d<\/p>\n

He picked up the bauble at in the LA Show\u2019s Technology Pavilion. Green Car of the Year is sponsored by Green Car Journal and judged by a jury including celebrity car-guy Jay Leno,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Clarity is our halo for right now,\u201d said Center as the Honda brand moves to offer electric offers in two-thirds of its lineup worldwide by 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the popular favorite out of the way, the Clarity beat out a field made up entirely of mainstream competitors \u2014 including sibling Honda Accord hybrid. Other contenders were the Toyota Camry hybrid, Nissan Leaf EV and Hyundai Ioniq which nearly matched the Clarity\u2019s versatility with hybrid, plug-in and electric-only models. \u201cThe Clarity is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21464,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21463\/revisions\/21464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}