Any news/speculation/opinions on whether Honda will continue using the IMA system in their next generation of hybrids? Or will they develop a new hybrid system?

 

Speculation... it'll depend entirely on three things:
1. What the market wants. Through the utter flop of the Accord hybrid, they've learned that people don't want hybrids tuned for "performance", they want them for efficiency. There are a lot of things you can do to tweak an ICE for better efficiency, and Honda's one of the best at it.
2. What technology improvements are made. If fuel cell systems become realistic within five years, there's no point to improving the IMA system as such, except to continue the existing lines while production is converted over. Likewise, I would think that there are a lot of things that might be possible with diesel systems. A hybridized B100 diesel could be a very strong seller in "green" markets. But not California or other states that have outlawed diesel passenger cars.
3. What Toyota does. Honda and Toyota are always trying to one-up each other, and if they can find a way to leapfrog each other, you better believe they'll do it. If that means ditching IMA for a pure electric, or only changing the way it's built (more coils, change of magnet material, etc), it'll be done.

 

Hydrogen fuel cells will absolutely not become realistic within 5 years. Even if they did its a relatively absurd technology the way that our hydrogen infrastructure is currently setup. The methods used to extract hydrogen are not nearly as efficient as just creating electricity and then storing it in a battery. Our current electrical grid is extraordinarily efficient. Plug in hybrids will come out far before you ever see a mass produced fuel cell vehicle.

the benefits of a phev are enormous. You can use the hybrid battery packs to buffer grid demand during the day. This allows the size of power plants to shrink as the peak demands are reduced by the network of cars acting as a buffer. Car owners would look forward to compensation from the power companies for this.
http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?sect...e&storyid=1115

honda has a smal diesel engine that is at least as clean as gasoline engines, it uses USL diesel and creates its own urea somehow to use as a catalyst to clean the exhaust gases. It does seem likely to see a USLD plug in hybrid.

Pure electric wont catch on in the states with the current mindset of consumers, there are too many people that are turned off by the idea of a limited range. For a car to be successful in the American market it needs to be able to drive across the country without any significant down time.

Please dont look forward to fuel cells, they are not that great of a technology and all the effort that is being poured into them is a little absurd. I think the tech should be improved, but not at the cost of other alternatives. I mean we need to keep an open mind about this vehicle power issue. Putting all our eggs into fuel cells is a bad idea. Lets look at the benefits of plugin hybrids, all electric, new battery technology, residential photo voltaic power generation etc. Hydrogen is almost certainly the least promising technology that is currently being pursued.

sorry about the anti-fuel cell tirade, but i believe the hard push for fuel cells is limiting our vision of other solutions.