A Honda CR-Z, seen in 2018 in Beijing. The sporty Honda was painted in bright red and stood on the the factory standard alloy wheels. The Honda CR-Z was a 2-door hybrid made from 2010 until 2016. Honda called it a “sport hybrid coupe”.
The CR-Z had an interesting design, with a long hood, an extremely raked windshield, big doors, and a short rear end. It was function over pretty, designed to lower drag, which ended up at 0.30 Cd.
The interior was different too. The dash had a large round dial in the middle flanked by smaller displays. The various menus were controlled with a knob on the right side of the steering wheel. The screen for the infotainment was positioned closer to the passenger than to the driver.
The Honda CR-Z was a front-engine front-wheel drive hybrid electric vehicle, combining a gasoline engine with an electric motor. The gasoline engine was a 1.5 liter four with 112 hp and 145 Nm. The electric DC brushless motor added another 14 hp and 79 Nm. Transmission was a CVT.
The low drag and hybrid powertrain made for a very low fuel consumption. In Japan, it was rated at 4.o liter per 100 kilometer, and in the US at 4.4. In China, however, it didn’t do that well, with the official government fuel consumption rating standing at ‘only’ at 5 liter per 100 kilometers.
The Honda CR-Z was sold in China as an import. But is was insanely expensive for such as small car. Sales in China started in 2012. There was only one model and one trim level available, priced at 288.800 yuan. For that money, you could buy three (03) locally made five-door Honda Fit hatchbacks, powered by a 1.3 with a fuel consumption of 5.7 per 100 km.
No wonder then that the Honda CR-Z didn’t find many buyers in China. It was pulled out of the Chinese car market after only one year.
I live the rear windshield wiper on the CR-Z. It is positioned almost horizontally, as is the window itself.
At the bottom of the window this sticker: Integrated Motor Assist IMA. This is the overarching name of Honda’s hybrid technology, like it was used in the CR-Z, the Honda Insight, and various other hybrid Honda’s.
The CR-Z, while technologically ahead of local hybrid offerings, was just too expensive for its size and sort. It is therefore an extremely rare Honda in China, and over the years I have seen only a handful.
Near the Honda I found this totally old-school phone booth. A reminder of the good old days, calling with IP and IC cards, waiting next to the booth for someone to call you back, and making calls to pagers, which was very complicated. Most of these booths were connected to the phone network with wiring going up, you can see it on the photo. In the past, there were literally hundreds of thick cables crossing Beijing and other Chinese cities at tree-level, which was kind of cool. Later on, most cables went underground. And at around the same time, most phone booths were removed because everyone has a mobile phone. But some phone booths and some Honda CR-Zs survive!