Trying to make up some of the ground it lost to competitors in the advanced-powertrain field last year, Honda has officially started sales of its 2014 Accord Plug-in Hybrid vehicle (PHEV).
The 2014 Accord PHEV is now available at some California and New York dealerships. The car, whose specs were announced in November, has a base price of $39,780 and can be leased for as low as $429 a month. Most notably, the model has a 115 mile per gallon equivalent (MPGe) rating, beating out the 98 MPGe rating for the Chevrolet Volt and the 95 MPGe rating for the Toyota Prius Plug-in. The model will also be the first gasoline-powered vehicle to get the California Air Resources Board's (CARB) Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle 20 (SULEV 20) rating, meaning that the car emits no more than 20 milligrams of emissions per mile.
The Accord PHEV can go 13 miles in electric-only mode, and the big question is whether that – and the other features – are enough to jumpstart the automaker's advanced-powertrain sales for 2013, after a moribund 2012. The automaker's hybrid and electric vehicle sales last year totaled 17,292 units, down 45 percent from 2011.
Honda may look to Toyota for clues on how the US will respond for PHEV spinoffs of existing vehicle models. Last year, Toyota sold 12,750 Prius Plug-ins, about five percent of the total Prius line. The Prius Plug-in has an MSRP of $32,760.
Read more in Accord Plug in forum.
The 2014 Accord PHEV is now available at some California and New York dealerships. The car, whose specs were announced in November, has a base price of $39,780 and can be leased for as low as $429 a month. Most notably, the model has a 115 mile per gallon equivalent (MPGe) rating, beating out the 98 MPGe rating for the Chevrolet Volt and the 95 MPGe rating for the Toyota Prius Plug-in. The model will also be the first gasoline-powered vehicle to get the California Air Resources Board's (CARB) Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle 20 (SULEV 20) rating, meaning that the car emits no more than 20 milligrams of emissions per mile.
The Accord PHEV can go 13 miles in electric-only mode, and the big question is whether that – and the other features – are enough to jumpstart the automaker's advanced-powertrain sales for 2013, after a moribund 2012. The automaker's hybrid and electric vehicle sales last year totaled 17,292 units, down 45 percent from 2011.
Honda may look to Toyota for clues on how the US will respond for PHEV spinoffs of existing vehicle models. Last year, Toyota sold 12,750 Prius Plug-ins, about five percent of the total Prius line. The Prius Plug-in has an MSRP of $32,760.
Read more in Accord Plug in forum.