Honda Labelled Eco Leader

Honda is leading the field by rolling out its eco-labelling ahead of the rest of the industry. Honda’s 200-strong dealer network already has colour-coded labelling of their cars, well ahead of the 1 September deadline.

The labelling scheme denotes the environmental friendliness of each vehicle allowing the customer to make a greener car purchase, if customers are serious about the environment. The evidence of customer attitudes being in favour of such areas is clear from a quote from John Kingston, Environmental Manager at Honda UK.

"In a ‘What’s Worrying Britain’ survey conducted by Mori the environment was the number one issue for 1 in 3 people."

The Civic IMA’s environmental benefits in particular do not mean sacrifices in space, performance, luxury or expense that some might expect from a hybrid vehicle. At £15,300 the IMA is the best value hybrid car on sale in the UK yet includes features that are only usually available on far more expensive rivals such as leather seating, climate control and a CD player. Add this to the 58 mpg combined fuel consumption, 100% discount from the London congestion charge, low road tax and 8 year IMA warranty and you get an even clearer picture of how much money can be saved whilst still helping the environment.

Honda’s environmental stance has recently been boosted by the FCX Fuel Cell car, the first in the world to be available for private use in the US. This car achieves up to the equivalent of 73 mpg yet its only emission is water. Los Angeles highway authorities have invested in fuelling points for such vehicles so future development of the technology that Honda has brought to market looks assured.

Honda is committed to further developing its hybrid and fuel cell technologies into the future, with the new Civic Hybrid being launched in 2006.

To read our in depth road test of the Honda Civic IMA [ click here ]