Honda has been providing limited leasing of its Honda Fit electric vehicle on the United States west coast for seven months, and they now intend to offer it on the east coast. It will be available in the state of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York later this month.
Honda normally offers three-year leases of the Fit EV at a cost of $389 per month. They haven’t been renting many since they debuted the vehicle in California and Oregon in the summer of 2012. Honda has rented only 93 during the last half of 2012, and only nine more in January 2013, though our own Susanna Schick found the Honda Fit EV a blast to drive.
In June 2012, the EPA declared that the Fit EV can travel 82 miles per charge, and that its efficiency rating is 118 MPGe. It can be charged using a 120 volt or 240 outlet, and if connected to a 240 volt outlet, it can be charged in less than three hours. This vehicle is equipped with a lithium-titanate battery, and has the potential to be charged in as little as 15 minutes.
The slow expansion of the Honda Fit EV into EV-friendly areas like California and Massachusetts shows that Honda is taking it slow for now with their EV ambitions. Like many automakers, Honda is more enthusiastic about the potential for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, but state and Federal regulations all but demand that automakers put a certain number of EVs into circulation.
Anyone on the East Coast waiting to get their hands on a Honda Fit EV?
Source: Honda.
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