TURN the clock back to the new Millennium and Honda was grabbing the headlines with a car that ran partially off batteries.
Its Insight had a conventional petrol engine but was helped out by a battery powered electric motor which reduced emissions and gave lots of miles to the gallon. Given what has been happening in the motoring industry of late Honda was showing quite a bit of insight with its green technology in 2000.
Now Honda has ramped up the green battle with the world’s first hybrid supermini - the lovable Jazz.
The Insight of a decade ago was a clever machine but compromised by its bootful of batteries and if you want to see how things have moved on take a good look at Jazz and try and work out where the batteries are stored.
Jazz has always been a masterpiece of packaging, there is no other supermini around that can match its incredible space and remarkably it has barely lost out to carrying a big battery pack, stored at ground level between the back wheels.
The hybrid uses a 1.3 petrol engine supplemented by an electric motor, all driven through a clever intuitive automatic gearbox, and switches between petrol power and zero emissions electric or a combination of the two when needed. The result is a potential 60mpg and emissions so low car tax is free for the first year and then its just a tenner a year afterwards.
Honda decided against going for broke with a sub 100g/km emissions engine and free car tax (as Toyota has done with its hybrid Auris) because the additional batteries would have taken up too much room.
Driving through this green jungle could be complicated. The number of graphics monitoring how things are going under the bonnet are akin to the flight deck of a jumbo jet so Honda has made it ultra simple.
Drive smoothly and the instrument binnacle glows green, go off the rails and it turns blue.
How does it all come together? I went for a 30 minute urban cruise around Deganwy and Llandudno and returned 50mpg which speaks for itself. Everything worked smoothly including the stop-start system that kills the engine when stationary.
The high cost of hybrid is always an issue so against the competition £16k for a Jazz is relatively cheap but compared to the starting price of £11,295 it is still a big chunk of money.
The whole Jazz range has been given a modest facelift with cosmetic tweaks to the body and some minor touches in the cabin.
Engineers at the Swindon factory have looked again at the suspension settings, always a contentious area, and tried to improve the quality of ride as well as introducing a more feel to the steering. They are getting their but Jazz still isn’t as good to drive as new Fiesta, Polo or Vauxhall Corsa but all three would love to have the Honda’s space.
Other happenings on the Honda front are upgrades to the Honda Accord - the so called forgotten car of the fleet market.
Due here in July the Accord gets some minor improvements to the front and rear bumpers, but the improvements to the diesel engine are significant. The 2.2 litre turbo diesel is quieter and cleaner and drops under the 160g/km category reducing the tax bill for company drivers.
I sat in both old and new models and Accord drivers will certainly appreciate the new seats which are better cushioned and more supportive. Prices start at £21,695.