Honda CR-Z sports coupe hybrid

A petrol-electric CR-Z will be revealed in a fortnight as the centrepiece on the Honda stand at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show.

The car is fully road ready and should make it to Australia in the second half of next year, joining a new hybrid rush led by the all-new Insight and — perhaps — the upcoming Jazz hybrid.

Full details are being kept secret until the show, but the CR-Z is intended to sporty driving back into the Honda line-up for the first time since the death of the Integra, the same styling tweaks of the CR- Z from the 1990s.

The CR-Z will used a similar Integrated Motor Assist system to the one in today's Civic hybrid, complete with a 1.5-litre petrol engine upsized from the 1.3 in the Insight and a six-speed manual gearbox.

Negotiations for local deliveries of the CR-Z, and the possible addition of the Jazz hybrid to the local line-up, will be lead at the Tokyo Show by the head of Honda Australia, Yasuhide Mizuno.

But already the car is into planning for next year, probably with a price-tag in the $45,000 range. "We are hopeful. The CR-Z is certainly on our radar and we're doing everything we can to ensure the car is sold in Australia," says Mark Higgins, spokesman for Honda Australia. "But we have no timetable yet. The launch date has not been set,"

The Honda line-up in Tokyo will be built around a range of concept cars which push its commitment to greener motoring - and particularly electric and hydrogen power - but will include a face-lifted CR-V, which will be in local showrooms before the middle of next year.