Honda headed to 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon with 5-car line up

A lifted and rugged Honda Civic? A retro racer S660? Honda sure is planning to showcase a lot of quirky customized vehicles at the upcoming 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon.
To be specific, Honda Access has announced that they will be exhibiting five new unique vehicles during the customized auto show in January. All of them being modified version of vehicles currently offered by Honda in Japan.

For the time being, Honda has only released teaser photos of these vehicles with not much details on each model. That said, do expect full details on each unit to be released once the vehicles makes their global debut during the Tokyo Auto Salon.
Out of the five, one of the vehicles which stood out the most is the Civic Versatilist. Based on the press release, it is essentially a Civic Hatchback that has been lifted and given a more rugged look. Translating the text, it says that the modification and kit adds SUV likeness to the Civic but still retaining a more stylish sedan look.

Meanwhile, the Modulo Neo Classical Racer builds on the already retro-looking Honda S660 Neo Classic introduced earlier this year. It is said to combine the Neo Classic's sporty aspect along with Modulo's fine tuning. Modulo's modification adds wider fenders, a new set of wheels and a more aggressive looking front end akin to racers of the past.

Continuing their line up of cute looking vehicles, Honda Access will also be debuting the Well Concept (based on a StepWGN) and the Trip Van (based on an N-Van +Style Fun Turbo). The former is said to represent a family car of the future, which will also act like a family member. Meanwhile, the Trip Van is said to take inspiration from surfing and other hobbies.

Rounding up Honda Access display is the Fit Elegant Color Collection. Known locally as the Jazz, it is fitted with a Modulo kit but features unique paint combinations which ladies will find cute and attractive.
All five models are set to debut at the 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon which opens on January 11 at the Makuhari Messe in Japan.

Source;
https://www.autoindustriya.com/auto-industry-news/honda-headed-to-2019-tokyo-auto-salon-with-5-car-line-up.html

Honda Has Developed a Completely New EV Battery

by Daniel Rufiange

 

When it comes to the relatively new domain of electric mobility and the technologies that surround it, question marks are common, uncertainty the only certainty. And one of the big unknowns concerns the type of battery that will be used in electric cars of the future. Enter Honda and its possible solution to longstanding problems to do with range, cost, safety and environmental impact.

 

A team of scientists at Honda Research, working in collaboration with the California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, have completed development of a new type of battery using room-temperature fluoride-ion technology. Up until now, these types of batteries could only be used when at a temperature of 300 F (or 149 Celsius) or above.

What are the advantages of using a fluoride-ion as opposed to a lithium-ion battery, you ask? There are two main benefits, according to Dr. Christopher Brooks, the head of Honda Research.

"Fluoride-ion batteries offer a promising new battery chemistry with up to ten times more energy density than currently available Lithium batteries. Unlike Li-ion batteries, FIBs do not pose a safety risk due to overheating, and obtaining the source materials for FIBs creates considerably less environmental impact than the extraction process for lithium and cobalt."
- Dr. Christopher Brooks, Honda Research

The potential safety and environmental benefits make the technology worth exploring.

Much works needs to be done before the new battery can be put to widespread use, of course, but Honda says that fluoride-ion batteries could well be the future of electric-car battery systems, not to mention any other products that require batteries.

Source;
https://www.auto123.com/en/news/honda-ev-battery-fluoride-ion/65391/