2014 Honda Accord PHEV EPA-certified at 115 MPGe

Although Honda’s presence at the Los Angeles Auto Show was dominated by the debut of the 2013 Civic, the company also announced that the 2014 Accord Plug-In Hybrid, featuring Honda’s new two-motor system (earlier post) earned an EPA-certified 115 MPGe rating and will go on sale in New York and California on 15 January with an MSRP of $ 39,780.

Separately, the Accord Hybrid, also featuring Honda’s new two-motor hybrid system, will launch nationwide next summer with anticipated fuel economy ratings of 49/45/47 city/hwy/combined (4.8/5.2/5.0 l/100km respectively). The revised 2013 Honda Crosstour and 2013 Honda CR-Z also made their auto-show debuts.

With its EPA rating of 115 MPGe, the Accord Plug-In Hybrid surpasses plug-in-class competitors including the Ford C-Max Energi (100 MPGe), Chevy Volt (98 MPGe), and Prius Plug-in (95 MPGe). The 2014 Accord Plug-in has been rated by the EPA with a maximum all-electric EV mode range of 13 miles (21 km) (Honda had earlier projected 10 to 15 miles), and a fuel-economy rating of 47/46/46 mpg city/hwy/combined (5.0/5.1/5.1 l/100km respectively).

The 2014 Accord Plug-in Hybrid is powered by Honda’s first two-motor hybrid system, and uses a new Earth Dreams i-VTEC 2.0-liter 4-cylinder Atkinson-cycle gasoline engine producing 137 hp (102 kW) at 6200 rpm, teamed with a 124 kW electric motor. Electric driving is supported by a 6.7 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, and total system output is 196 hp (146 kW).

The Accord Plug-in is also the first production car in America to meet the more stringent new LEV3/SULEV20 emissions standard (earlier post), and it will also qualify for single-occupant carpool-lane access in California.

The new California LEV III standards are designed to force the reduction of fleet average emissions of new passenger cars (PCs), light-duty trucks (LDTs) and medium-duty passenger vehicles (MDPVs) to super ultra-low-emission vehicle (SULEV) levels by 2025. (This corresponds to US EPA Tier 2 Bin 2.)

The California Air Resources Board proposed proposed three additional light-duty vehicle emission standards (ULEV70, ULEV50, and SULEV20) to which manufacturers may certify their vehicles when meeting the fleet average emission requirement. The numerical part of the standard category, such as 20 in SULEV20, refers to the emission standard, in thousandths of a gram per mile. I.e., SULEV20 represents NMOG+NOx emission standards of 0.020 g/mi.

Unlike the unique styling of the Accord Plug-In, the Accord Hybrid will share styling much closer the conventional Accord Sedan. More details on the Accord Hybrid will be released closer to launch.

Gasoline-Electric Cars

Source: