The Honda Civic was released in the mid 1970s as a compact 2-door hatchback. It was hailed as an environmental-friendly, Clean-Air-Act compliant smallcar. Honda has continued its research and development on fuel-efficiency and hybrid technology resulting in the rollout of the Honda Civic hybrid cars. It remained committed to what it calls "Environmentology" - the company's strong focus on efficiency and environmental-consciousness.

The Civic continued to be Honda's foremost model in fuel efficiency. In 1986, Honda's 4-cylinder version of the Civic, the CRX-HF, surpassed 50 miles per gallon capacity. Twenty years and millions of Civics later, the Hybrid model of the Civic won the global Green Car award in 2006.

Alternatives

Honda Civic has been the forerunner of all things innovative at Honda. In 1999, the company targeted a zero-or near-zero gas and fume emissions level for the Civic GX which used compressed natural gas as alternative fuel. The Civic GX was thus certified by the Environmental Protection Agency as the cleanest among its class of internal combustion-driven cars.

Honda Civic Hybrid Cars: Inevitable

In 2006 the Civic Hybrid was rolled out with a VTEC gasoline engine paired to electric hybrid technology motor. The gasoline engine compensated where the electric motor was wanting, and the electric motor assisted when the gas engine nedded help from electric power.

Honda hybrid technoloy is called Integrated Motor Assist. It is a system where the VTEC engine achieves new levels of efficiency through the help of an electric motor that is very thin and light. The system allows the VTEC engine to burn the fuel more efficiently, leaving no residues.

The Honda Civic Hybrid does not use any special additive or fuel type to achieve this kind of efficiency which is EPA-rated at 49 miles to the gallon for congested city driving and 51 miles to the gallon for cruising on the highways.

Honda's hybrid system does not need to be plugged to an electrical outlet. Instead it relies on a regenerative braking system to capture kinetic energy and momentum generated by the braking process. The Civic Hybrid remains a low-maintenance vehicle just like its pure gasoline predecessors.

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