( dpa ) - Honda Motor Company plans to expand its hybrid lineup over the next three years, including a model that is priced below the Civic hybrid, media reports from the Detroit auto show said Monday.
The Detroit Free Press quoted Honda officials at the North American International Auto Show as saying the company expected to sell 200,000 of the new hybrid-only model in 2009 for less than 22,600 dollars, cheaper than the Civic hybrid.
Honda expects to sell half in the US, the newspaper said.
The Japanese automaker also plans to add another hybrid-only vehicle and upgrade a current model over the next three years, aiming to reduce costs for all three models.
Honda president Takeo Fukui said the next-generation Civic hybrid and the CR-Z, a hybrid sports car on display at the show, could be expected by 2011.
"Around 2011, all those three models are ready to go, so well be achieving 400,000 to 500,000 global production" of hybrids, Fukui said through an interpreter.
Honda introduced its early hybrid, the Insight, in the US in 1999, ahead of Toyota's Prius, but has since phased it out. US sales of Prius have surpassed Honda, accounting for 181,221 in 2007, or about half of all US hybrid sales.