Honda CR-Z Hybrid costs $28k in UK

Honda's new hybrid sports car, the CR-Z, has just made its European debut at the Geneva motor show and UK pricing has been announced. British buyers will be stumping up £16,999 for the CR-Z S entry-level model.

This works out to about $28,000 in local currency, but will that be the level at which the CR-Z goes on the market Down Under?

Not likely... For example, the $39,990 Honda Civic Type-R cost around $35,000 (£20,768) to British car buyers. Depending on the level of specification the Australian CR-Z Hybrid is packaged with (and comparing the UK pricing of Type-R and CR-Z) we'd suggest local CR-Z prices should start at around $32-34,000.

Thanks to its 1.5-litre petrol engine hooked up to an electric motor and six-speed manual, the Honda CR-Z has a combined city-highway fuel economy figure of just 5.0L/100km. Taking advantage of a parallel hybrid-drive system, the CR-Z coughs out just 117g/km of CO2 from the petrol engine -- a very low figure. When combining the output from both petrol and electric motors, peak power and torque is rated at 91kW/174Nm (the electric motor contributing 10kW/78Nm).

Standard features of the Honda CR-Z include six airbags, active headrests and stability control, or 'vehicle stability assist' to use Honda's words, plus climate control, a six-speaker CD player and engine starter button. Higher level variants of the CR-Z benefit from alloy pedals, cruise control, a gear shift indicator system, multi function steering wheel, parking sensors, premium 240W audio system with USB port, daytime running lights and xenon headlights, auxilliary sockets, ambient lighting, full leather upholstery, a panoramic glass roof, automatic headlights and wipers, and DVD satellite navigation.

Just how Honda Australia chooses to price the CR-Z locally is the $64,000 question... For a well-equipped sporty two-door coupe with 2+2 seating, a circa-$40K price would not be out of the ordinary, but a sleek looking hybrid sports car could well appeal to a much wider demographic of drivers than previous compact coupes.

We've a while to wait to find out, however. At this stage Honda has not set a firm release date for the CR-Z in Australia, but it is increasingly looking like the second half of 2011.

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