California Lemon Law Lawyer Blog

In July 2010 Honda issued new software for the 2006 through 2008 Civic Hybrid battery charging system to address complaints of diminished fuel economy and loss of power. Honda's letter to owners said the software was to prevent the integrated motor assist (IMA) battery from deteriorating and eventually fail.

The new software limits the amount of time the electric motor kicks in--prolonging batterylife but reducing the amount of assist the IMA electric-drive system provides the car's tiny four-cylinder gasoline engine.

Honda undoubtedly took this action in part to less the number of batteries it would have to pay to replace under its eight year factory battery warranty.

The problem is that after the software was installed, owners experienced reduced gas mileage (10 mpg or more) and less power. Post-software upgrade, owners said their cars were a "gutless wonder," having "less assist," the battery would not take as high a charge, at 4 bars the assist is unpredictable, and the assist will stop at critical times like when entering a freeway on-ramp.

Civic owners have many posted complaints about the impact of the software change on Internet forums, including www.greenhybrid.com, www.hybridcars.com, www.autoblog.com, and ConsumerReports.org (CR's car blog).

On behalf of a Civic hybrid owner, I have sent Honda notice that its failure to disclose the true impact of the software change violated various California consumer protection laws.

Nissan will sell an all electric car, the Leaf, in 2010 priced less than $20,000. The Leaf has a range of 100 miles. The cars initially will be produced in Japan; later, cars for the U.S. market will be produced in Smyrna, TN. Nissan is building a battery factory at the same location with the help of a $1.6 billion loan from the U.S. Government (!). The SF Chronicle's story on this very significant development is here

Nissan has a new concept car with no reverse. Plus, it is electric. Check it out.http://http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/05/23/nzekwu.uk.rotating.car.itn

The New York Times has selected the best websites that provide accurate information on green cars--hybrid and electric. The sites are treehugger.com that provides a survey of the green car landscape, priuschat.com that covers the Prius, pluginamerica.com that is an organizing site for electric car advocates, hybridcars.com that covers all hybrids, greencarcongress.com is an in-depth discussion of green car technology, gm-volt.com that covers GM's promised hybrid, and autobloggreen.com which is a AOL site that has general information on green cars.

The Times also lists two sites that cover fuel economy. fueleconomy.gov is a site run by the EPA that has a tool to compute miles per gallon which you may compare with other cars. Cleanmpg.com has tips on how to maximum your fuel economy.