Honda officials announced on Monday that they are pulling the plug on hybrid and compressed natural gas versions of its flagship Honda Civic car. The company also revealed the temporary suspension of plug-in versions of the Honda Accord.
The decision to hold back production on those models relates to market demands for natural gas vehicles and consumer purchasing power.
"We gave it a long run, and have tried and tried and tried," Honda Executive Vice President John Mendel told USA Today.
"But, that market outside of taxi cabs, commercial vehicles,...is not experiencing the uptick we expected."
Although Honda's CNG Civic model has been widely regarded as one of the most fuel-efficient and cost-effective natural gas cars on the market, company officials still believe it has not made a strong presence in the mainstream market.
Despite this, Honda officials plan to introduce new hydrogen fuel cell, plug-in hybrid and battery-powered electric vehicles in coming years. The new vehicles are also reported to have new model names.
"We are developing an entirely new generation of vehicles starting from the introduction in 2016 of our next-generation fuel cell vehicle," Mendel also told USA Today.
"This will be followed by an all-new battery electric model and the all-new plug-in hybrid model."
Honda is based in Japan and was founded in 1946.
