JPCN has been mulling over pictures of Honda’s Small Hybrid Sports (SHS) concept shown at the Geneva Auto Show, debating over whether it’s sufficiently ‘sporty’ enough to be posted on this blog. On the one hand, Honda says it’s likely to be a petrol-electric hybrid commuter car in the same vein as the Insight, the diminutive eco-car that spearheaded the hybrid craze. On the other hand, that body is a spitting image of another Honda that hasn’t been produced for a while… the CRX.

That familiar hunchbacked-hatchback roofline coupled with the short and stubby stance screams second-gen CRX, and when you consider that Honda recently announced that the CRX badge was due for a comeback, the SHS concept starts to look more and more like a potential CRX contender.

Beneath the skin though, it’s less sporty and more miserly. The petrol-electric engine and CVT transmission aren’t what one would normally associate with performance, while the skinny 165/60 tyres don’t help either.
Could the SHS concept merely be a CRX bodywork mule disguised as a commuter car in order to gauge public reaction to the design without explicitly saying it’s a CRX, or is it just another fancy-looking hybrid car? Time will tell.

[Source: Autoblog]
[Photos courtesy of Autoblog Green, Edmunds]