Honda Makes Earth Dreams Engine Technology a Reality

PARIS – Honda dubs its next generation of engines Earth Dreams Technology, starting with a 1.6L clean diesel called i-DTEC that will be added to the European Civic next year.

The Civic is in its ninth generation since 1972, and with the i-DTEC it will achieve carbon-dioxide emissions of 94 g/km, the equivalent of 67 mpg (3.5 L/100 km).

Manabu Nishimae, president of Honda Motor Europe, says the engine also will be added in 2013 to the European version of the fourth-generation CR-V cross/utility vehicle introduced at the auto show here. Even with its current engines, the new CR-V is 12% and 10% more efficient with diesel and gasoline mills, respectively, thanks to stop/start technology and improved aerodynamics.

All Honda engines will be replaced with Earth Dreams Technology powerplants that are more fuel-efficient, Nishimae says. Some will be hybrid designs under Honda’s new suite of three hybrid configurations.

Cars such as the Civic will get one electric motor, midsize and large cars will get two and the all-wheel-drive Acura NSX Concept going into production in 2015 will have three motors and a V-6 gasoline engine.

Nishimae says the next step will be a fuel-cell vehicle, with sales launching in 2016 in Japan, the U.S. and Europe.

Honda also is returning to racing in Europe, with a Civic using the 1.6L engine tuned for competing on the World Touring Car circuit, including a race on the Suzuka Circuit in Japan that Honda established in 1962, before the country even had a freeway.

Nishimae says a Type R Civic under development will benefit from the racing program, and the auto maker “will add a new wagon model to the Civic range,” with a concept to be presented in March at the Geneva auto show.

Concepts on display here include the EV-ster, an electric roadster unveiled in December at the Tokyo auto show.