This summer, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. had some fuel consumption changes to test on its best-selling car in Canada. Success would mean qualifying for Ottawa's new $1,000 feebate scheme and higher sales. The trouble was the changes needed to be put to a winter test.
So Honda's engineers went to find winter, in New Zealand, with new models in tow. The 1.8-litre Civic with a five-speed manual transmission had low-rolling-resistance tires, new panels under the chassis to improve airflow, new alloy wheels and a spoiler. The goal was to get to 6.5 litres of gas or less for every 100 kilometres travelled. They made it.
The Civic is one of 28 gasoline-powered 2008 model-year vehicles eligible for the credit. That's a significant increase from the 17 vehicles that generated rebates in the 2007 model year in a program that all auto makers but one have criticized as distorting the market and giving preference to buyers of vehicles from Toyota Canada Inc.
But even as they were blasting Transport Canada's ecoAuto rebate scheme and lobbying to have it overturned, vehicle companies were working feverishly on changes that got some vehicles on the rebate list, or eliminated levies of up to $4,000 on the penalty side of the federal program.
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Honda Canada Inc. had to make sure that the harder rubber in the low-rolling-resistance tires didn't get too hard and that the tread pattern suited winter driving, senior vice-president Jim Miller said yesterday. "At that time of year, Down Under appeared to have winter," Mr. Miller said "They couldn't find any winter in Canada, obviously."
The subcompact Honda Fit will also make the list after missing the rebate for the 2007 model year by a 10th of a litre at 6.6 litres per 100 kilometres travelled. In the case of the Fit, the alternator is on continuously in Canada to recharge the battery and power daytime running lights, using more gas than if the alternator were to run intermittently. Honda Canada will install an alternator for the U.S. market in its Canadian Fit models. It doesn't run constantly, thus saving the tiny amount of fuel needed.
In addition to rewarding buyers of fuel sippers, Ottawa's feebate scheme also slaps a levy of up to $4,000 on gas guzzlers. So Chrysler Canada Inc. changed roof rails on its Jeep Commander 4-by-4 sport utility vehicle with a 3.7-litre engine to cut that vehicle's gas consumption to less than 13 litres per 100 kilometres. A new engine on the Dodge Viper muscle car has improved fuel economy, which reduces the penalty to $1,000 from $3,000 on the 2007 model.
That change was not related to the federal program, but rather to continuous improvement at Chrysler, which still opposes the program, spokesman Ed Saenz said yesterday.
Nissan Canada Inc. adjusted software that controls transmission shifts on the V-6 Pathfinder SUV. That brought fuel consumption down to 12.9 litres from 13.1 litres on the 2007 model and eliminated the $1,000 penalty.
The changes indicate the federal program, introduced in the March budget, has encouraged manufacturers to make their vehicles more efficient, said Greg McGuire, an Ottawa consultant who co-wrote the study for the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy that recommended the feebate system.
"We don't by any means have a perfect system, but it's a start," Mr. McGuire said.
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