2005 HONDA ACCORD HYBRID The invisible hybrid

Toyota's coolly futuristic Prius is instantly recognizable—one automotive writer likened it to a "set piece from a Kubrick film." Honda, on the other hand, has lately taken a different design tack with its hybrids. Its tiny two-seat Insight, introduced five years ago, was designed from the ground up as a unique vehicle, but since then Honda's hybrids have been visually indistinguishable from standard models. In 2002, the Civic Hybrid offered a "mild hybrid" system—the electric motor supplements the gasoline engine but cannot move the car by itself—and now the company has taken the same approach with the larger Honda Accord Hybrid.

Honda's Integrated Motor Assist System consists of a 12-kilowatt (16-horsepower) electric motor, just 68 millimeters wide, mounted between the engine and the transmission. It is powered by a 6-ampere, 144-volt nickel-metal hydride battery pack. The motor is mated to the same 179-kW (240-hp), 3-liter V6 engine that powers top-of-the-line Accords. The added power, instantly available from the electric motor on takeoff, cuts the hybrid's zero-to-60 mph (97 km/h) acceleration time to 7.5 seconds, from the 7.9 seconds of a regular V6 Accord, according to Honda.

The car's idle-stop feature shuts off the engine whenever the car stops. When the engine is off, Honda, like most manufacturers, maintains the functions of its accessories, such as the air-conditioning compressor, by switching them from mechanical to electric power.

While full hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape use continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) to maximize mileage, the Accord Hybrid uses a conventional, electronically controlled five-speed automatic. The resulting driving experience is identical to that in a regular car, whereas a CVT user is sometimes nonplussed to find the engine speed rising or falling independently of road speed.READ MORE...