---

Honda Helps Launch Program to Advance Ultra-Clean Vehicles

9 June 2000

Honda Helps Launch Program to Advance Ultra-Clean Vehicles

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Studying and advancing ultra-clean vehicles while 
evaluating their air quality benefits are the goals behind a new cooperative 
partnership announced today by the College of Engineering - Center for 
Environmental Research and Technology at the University of California,
Riverside; Honda; the California Air Resources Board and the Environmental
Protection Agency.

    Research for the unique cooperative program will be conducted primarily at
UCR.  The specific goals of the cooperative research include:

    --  developing technologies and techniques for accurately measuring
        emissions at near-zero levels;
    --  understanding how extremely low emission vehicles perform on the road
        under "real world" conditions;
    --  assessing the air quality benefits and environmental impact of these
        vehicles.

    "Some of the near-zero emission vehicles being developed today are so
clean that their emissions are virtually undetectable by existing measurement
equipment," said Ben Knight, vice president, Honda Research & Development.
"These amazing advancements in automotive technology are driving the need for
cooperative technical research to assess the potential benefits of these
vehicles.  We believe this open, cooperative research coupled with the
advancement of this emissions measuring technology will benefit society."

    UCR/CE-CERT has the broad research experience, scientific resources and
overall capability to successfully put together this type of leading-edge
program.  They will bring objective, credible, sound science and engineering
to lead this collaborative research program and advance the evaluation and
understanding of near-zero emission vehicle environmental performance.

    Ford and General Motors also are contributors to this research program.
The cooperative program is open to additional partners from the automotive,
fuel and instrumentation industries, as well as the academic and science
communities.

    Honda and CE-CERT, both recognized leaders in advanced automotive
technology, partnered last year in a smart car-sharing research program called
IntelliShare, which involved more than 200 participants using 15 Honda EV PLUS
electric vehicles.  The program is part of Honda's international Intelligent
Community Vehicle System (ICVS) which is examining consumer attitudes toward
vehicle sharing.