Nov 3, 2003 at 12:00
It's not just Lee Goldberg who can go green for a while! This Editor was fortunate to enjoy an extended test drive of a 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid recently, and I found the experience both exciting and a little unnerving.Readers of green-techZONE probably don't need to be told much about how this vehicle operates, but as a reminder it has a 1339 cc aluminum alloy block and head in-line 4-cylinder gas engine, with a permanent magnet dc electric motor coupled on the engine drive. The electric motor is powered by a 144-V battery made up of 120 1.2-V Ni-MH cells which are stacked behind the rear passenger seats. The space is stolen from the trunk capacity -- rather than the rear seat legroom, which is already too short for most adults -- reducing the trunk capacity from 12.9 cubic feet to 10.1 cubic feet but it's probably still space enough for the majority of a family's grocery shopping. Honda calls it Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) and it's difficult to understand exactly how much power is actually added to the dri...
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