2008 Honda Odyssey Touring Mini Passenger Van 4-door 3.5l on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: Charging in Iceland, Smart "For" campaign, Honda open sources Smart Home

Iceland's EV charging network is expanding by 200 units. A subsidiary of Northern Lights Energy called EVEN is providing and installing the rapid chargers, which it hopes to have installed by the end of the year. EVEN's Gisli Gislasson says, "We couldn't wait for the government and decided to do our part in this." Iceland's government hopes to have 10 percent of the cars on its road powered by sustainable fuels by 2020. Read more at Iceland Review. Argonne National Laboratory is working to create universal charging for electric vehicles. Through its new Electric Vehicle Interoperability Center, the group is studying ways to standardize charging so any type of electric vehicle in any country can charge at any charging station. Additionally, the research is working on ways to better integrate electric cars to a smart grid, to the point where EVs could even act as part of the grid, charging when they need it and providing electricity during peak hours. Go to Phys.org for more details. Smart has launched its "For" campaign in Europe. The maker of the tiny city cars is reaching out to the public through updated branding, ads through various channels and social media engagement to get people thinking about Smart in fresh ways. The campaign emphasizes the "For" idea, as in "For challenging the status quo," "For loving the city," etc. Also as part of the campaign, Smart will be embarking on a Europe-wide roadshow to 15 different cities, where the public can learn more about the cars – particularly the Fortwo and Forfour models – and even arrange a test drive. Read more in the press release below. Honda is publicly sharing plans associated with its Smart Home project. The project, which goes beyond cars and into the home to look for ways to live efficiently and reduce CO2 emissions, involves sustainable energy and heating and cooling methods, smart lighting, sustainable building materials and waste management, passive design and, of course, vehicle charging. Now, technical details such as architectural plans, mechanical drawings, furniture specs and CAD data will be open-source and publicly available for any interested parties. Check out the Honda Smart Home website to learn more, or to start downloading the plans yourself. "FOR" brand campaign: smart: More than just a car Functionality, innovation and joie de vivre – these are the brand values that make smart so unique. smart sees itself as a future-oriented, visionary brand that stands for a great idea.

US expands probe into ZF-TRW airbag failure-to-deploy to 12.3 million vehicles

DETROIT — U.S. auto safety regulators have expanded an investigation into malfunctioning airbag controls to include 12.3 million vehicles because the bags may not inflate in a crash. The problem could be responsible for as many as eight deaths. Vehicles made by Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Fiat Chrysler from the 2010 through 2019 model years are included in the probe, which was revealed Tuesday in documents posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It involves airbag control units made by ZF-TRW that were installed in the vehicles. The control units can fail in a crash, possibly because of unwanted electrical signals produced by the crash itself that can disable an air bag control circuit housed in the passenger compartment, according to NHTSA documents. The electrical signals can damage the control circuit, the documents say. ZF, a German auto parts maker which acquired TRW Automotive in 2015, said in a statement that it's committed to safety and is cooperating with NHTSA and automakers in the investigation. The case is another in a long list of problems with auto industry airbags, including faulty and potentially deadly Takata airbag inflators. At least 24 people have been killed worldwide and more than 200 injured by the inflators, which can explode with too much force and hurl dangerous shrapnel into the passenger cabin. The inflators touched off the largest series of automotive recalls in U.S. history involving with as many as 70 million inflators to be recalled by the end of next year. About 100 million inflators are to be recalled worldwide. On April 19, NHTSA upgraded the ZF-TRW probe from a preliminary evaluation to an engineering analysis, which is a step closer toward seeking recalls. So far, only Hyundai and Kia and Fiat Chrysler have issued recalls in the case. Four deaths that may have been caused by the problem were reported in Hyundai-Kia vehicles and three in Fiat Chrysler automobiles. NHTSA opened an investigation in March of 2017 involving the TRW parts in Hyundais and Kias. The upgrade came after investigators found two recent serious crashes involving 2018 and 2019 Toyota Corollas in which the airbags did not inflate. One person was killed. Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit consumer group, said the ZF-TRW case shows the auto industry thus far has learned very little from Takata.

Honda Concept B Hybrid production version coming to China in 2016

At the Beijing Motor Show this weekend, Honda took the wraps off of the Concept B Hybrid, a "new-value concept" that will apparently do its level best to get the Japanese automaker back into the entry-level gas-electric game. Powertrain details for the five-door concept hatch are noticeably absent, so we are assuming that what Honda wants with this concept is for us to focus on the looks. Honda says the car's exterior design is "advanced and cool-looking." We like the shape, but think a few changes will do wonders for the production model.
If the busy front end gets turned down a bit in production (it's especially glaring from the front), we can see this becoming a darn good replacement for the Insight at the lower end of the hybrid price spectrum. Sadly, for now, Honda is saying that the mass-production model that uses the Concept B as a foundation will be available "exclusively" on the Chinese market in two years.
Speaking at the Beijing show, Honda president and CEO Takanobu Ito continued to look for ways to green his company's line-up, and said Honda, "will strive to become number one in complying with Chinese CAFE regulations, which are the toughest in the world, and offer a new lifestyle for Chinese customers." Come 2016, that new lifestyle could look like the car you see in the gallery above. Think it's a good one?