The question of the 'Hot' CR-Z : the official Honda answer

The 'new' CR-Z, actually the mid-term MMC for the CR-Z was officially launched in Malaysia on February 21st last week. This is actually very fast as the MMC was launched in Japan barely a few months away. When the CR-Z was first launched here, I asked a question to Norio Tomobe-san, the LPL for the CR-Z which it seems was quite widely circulated. I asked him about the rumours of the 'hot' CR-Z which was continously making its rounds especially in the internet and on UK magazines. At that time, he gave me a 'thumbs up' which I took it to mean 'YES' and excitedly reported it. Unfortunately nothing happened at all for more than a year. To be honest, I had more or less gave up and had written Honda off for making a fake promise. 

'New' CR-Z coming to Malaysia this month

For Malaysian enthusiasts who might have been waiting eagerly, the 'new' (i.e. MMC) CR-Z will be launched here in Malaysia this month itself, the 21st, in fact right after the 'Chinese New Year' week (i.e. next week), less than 2 weeks away. 

My understanding is we will be getting the JDM-spec version, with the 'new' 136ps engine and not the lame one used in the 'new' USDM CR-Z. Following this, the rest of ASEAN will of course be getting this car as well. In the media gathering, I overheard that there will be a private Q&A session with the CR-Z LPL the day before the launch but reserved for selected people only so expect news of the 'new' CRZ to start coming out on the 20th. We will be asking our questions during the press conference in the launch day itself.

Launch date of CR-Z MMC for ASEAN

With the recent launch of the MMC for the CR-Z, especially a more powerful 135-136ps engine, the most asked question now will have to be when it will make its debut here in Asia. My current understanding is that this MMC CR-Z will start showing up early next year, i.e. around the 1st quarter of 2013. Honda has already announced an 'around February' date for Indonesia and the rest of ASEAN date should be around that time as well.

Official press release : Honda CR-Z MMC, Paris Motor Show

Honda has officially announced the debut of the CR-Z MMC in the Paris Motor Show will is being held over this weekend. Basically everything that our TOV/TOVA readers whom has 'contacts' told us before were accurate and to the dot. The function of the 'S+' button, which Honda calls the 'Plus Sport' button is really a KERS like function for overtaking just like our TOV/TOVA reader from Europe first told us. Also the power increase as told to us by another reader is almost on the dot - just out by 1ps.


The official press release follows.

CR-Z MMC makes surprise appearance in Indonesia Motor Show

Eventhough Honda officially announced the debut of the CR-Z MMC for the Paris Motor Show on the 29th of this month, in a surprise move, the popular Malaysian car blog paultan.org reports from the Indonesia Motor Show of the display of an unit of the 'new' CR-Z MMC. Reports from paultan.org confirms the exterior changes to the CR-Z but the interior could not be checked out because the display car was locked. Official information from Honda Indonesia states a max power of 120ps for the MMC LEA engine and 20ps for the LiOn IMA electric motor with combined max power of 136ps for the 6MT version and 135ps for the CVT version. Max power point is at 6,600rpm and redline is 6,800rpm. These figures virtually confirms the scoop info that we saw last week. 

Meanwhile, official Honda publications like the Honda world site at world.honda.com is still announcing the 'world debut' of the CR-Z MMC at the Paris Motor Show.

Scoop photos on new CR-Z MMC : Power Comparison

TOVA reader Alan posted some photos to our TOVA Facebook (thanks Alan), the same photos being also posted on our TOV forums. It is likely these photos are taken off a japanese magazine due to the quality of the photos, as well as the layout of the last photo which seems to be more of a montage of photos. Nevertheless, these photos gives us very interesting info on the new CR-Z MMC to be launched on the 27th, just 10 days away from the date of this posting.

The first photo, which I look at in this post, is the power comparison. From this comparison, we can see that the MMC will nett power increases for the CR-Z as follows:

Paris Motor Show

The Paris motor show will be held on the 27th of September (i.e., this month at the time of this post). The show promises the debut of a few cars of interest to Honda enthusiasts. Top of the list will be the CR-Z MMC, also called the '2013 CR-Z'. This MMC promises some minor, yet very important updates to the CR-Z which has been getting some very good, yet also some negative reception. The new 4Gen CR-V which has already been launched to great success in the U.S. will debut in this show as well. And finally, but not least, the new diesel Civic with a 1.6l i-DTEC engine will also debut in this show. The official press release from Honda of Europe follows.

We also have a little bit of extra details on the CR-Z MMC and the Civic which we will be publishing on different posts afterwards.