Industry analysts at CAP Monitor say they believe that Honda's new petrol/electric vehicle will dominate the short-term future of clean cars.

The industry's independent benchmark service, which forecasts future residual values for new cars, says the car is a breakthrough in combining low running costs with motoring practicality and useability.

CAP Monitor editor Jeff Knight forecasts that the fuel economy of Honda's Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system and the 100 per cent rebate on the London congestion charge, will see it become a popular commercial vehicle, in the UK.

'The IMA finally establishes a real market for petrol/electric technology, overcoming the problems of its predecessors in terms of load space and practicality. It means that, at last, there is a real and credible petrol/electric offering which will not phase the user-chooser with perceived quirkiness, performance or useability issues,' he commented.

'The achievement of Honda - and soon Toyota too - will be to have successfully progressed from dipping their toes into a new technology to establishing a genuine confidence and appetite in the fleet market for petrol/electric hybrid vehicles,' he added.

Mr Knight argued that more readily immediate vehicles such as the IMA's petrol/electric hybrid were more likely to succeed in the short term than fuel cell driven cars and would also provide a genuine 'practical alternative to petrol and diesel'.