Honda News From Detroit Show

• HSC Concept car will serve as the basis for the next NSX
• Honda to introduce vehicle with "Variable Cylinder Management" for US market
• Accord Hybrid to use newly developed IMA V6 powertrain for US market
• FCX fuel cell vehicle to adopt newly developed Honda fuel cell stack in 2005

Honda’s President Takeo Fukui outlined the company’s near term strategy for advancing environmental technologies, at the North American International Motor Show earlier this week.

Perhaps the biggest news though was the announcement that the Honda HSC Concept car (first shown at Tokyo and displayed at Detroit as the Acura HSC) would "serve as the basis for the next generation NSX." The President said that Honda was committed to achieving industry best performance for the new vehicle - and that it would appear "within a few years."

At the show Fukui said that it is possible for conventional petrol engines to be cleaner and more efficient. To that end, he pledged that the company would introduce a vehicle in the US with Variable Cylinder Management (VSM), a technique which allows a V6 engine to use only three cylinders when cruising.

He also promised that Honda would introduce an Accord Hybrid with a newly developed V6 IMA hybrid system to complement the smaller Civic for the US market. This new IMA system - combined with VCM – achieves fuel economy on a par with a Civic, but with power and performance exceeding the current V6 American Honda Accord.

Finally the President said that Honda’s own-developed fuel cell stack would be introduced into the FCX fuel cell vehicle for Japan and America in the year 2005. The new fuel cell stack is capable of cold-starting in low temperatures thus overcoming a major hurdle of existing stacks, and is more compact.