Honda Launches 71 mgp Fit Shuttle in Japan - Possibly Headed to US

Photo: Honda

You Can Fit More Stuff and More People...
The Honda Fit is turning out to be quite the versatile little car. After the hybrid version and the electric version, Honda is now launching - in Japan only for now - the Shuttle and Shuttle hybrid versions. Honda's real coup was keeping fuel economy for the compact wagon equal to the non-Shuttle Fit by improving things like engine friction and front brake drag, and this in both the hybrid and non-hybrid versions.

Photo: Honda

• The Fit Shuttle features a 1.5-litre i-VTEC engine and offers best-in-class fuel economy of 18.6 km/litre as measured in JC08 mode and 20 km/litre as measured in 10・15 mode - the same as the Fit.
• The Fit Shuttle Hybrid features Honda's original compact, lightweight hybrid system, 1.3-litre i-VTEC engine plus IMA (Integrated Motor Assist), and offers fuel economy of 25.0 km/litre as measured in JC08 mode and 30 km/litre as measured in 10・15 mode - the same as the Fit Hybrid.

If you convert the 30 km/liter in the JC08 Japanese test-cycle in US miles per gallon, you get 71 MPG. Of course, the EPA's test methodology usually gives lower results than the Japanese one, but it's still a pretty impressive number.

Photo: Honda

The Fit Shuttle offers a combined 590 liters of cargo space above and below the floor. The Fit Shuttle Hybrid offers the same cabin space as the Fit Shuttle, as well as cargo capacity of 517 liters.

Pricing of the Fit Shuttle starts at ¥1,610,000 (US$19,900), and the Fit Shuttle Hybrid starts at ¥1,810,000 (US$22,400). Honda's initial sales target is 4,000 units per month.

No word yet on when it will be available in North-America or Europe, or at what price.

Source: Treehugger