Honda Fit Hybrid Goes on Sale in Japan

Honda has priced its Fit Hybrid subcompact in Japan at 1.59 million yen (US$19,300), making it the cheapest hybrid car available in the nation.

The Honda Fit Hybrid has been launched as a direct competitor to Toyota's Prius, which has been Japan's best selling vehicle since May 2009.

Japan's No. 2 automaker expects to sell about 5,600 units a month and it has already received 10,000 orders for the Fit Hybrid.

The Honda Fit Hybrid will go on sale in some European markets in the early part of 2011 known as the Jazz Hybrid, but it has no plans to sell the Fit Hybrid in the U.S.

The Fit Hybrid features the same 1.3 liter i-VTEC as the Insight and CR-Z hybrid and despite its taller, more flexibility focused shape, the new car has CO2 emissions of a similar level at 104 g/km according to internal Honda tests.

Like the Insight and Civic Hybrid models, the Fit Hybrid will be capable of running on the electric motor alone under some medium and low speed conditions and this contributes to a combined fuel consumption figure of just 30 km per liter (70.6 mpg U.S.) under the Japanese highway test system.

A revamped version of Honda’s regular gasoline-powered Fit with a 1.3-liter engine is priced from 1.23 million yen and at 1.5 million yen for the 1.5-liter engine.

Honda has sold more than 3.5 million Fit subcompacts since the model was introduced in 2001.