Environmental News Network reports that the Honda will only manufacture hybrid Civics, “ditching the traditional internal combustion engines, starting in 2011.”

According to the article, the announcement is also part of a shift in Honda’s overall strategy. The article said that “Honda had planned on building even smaller cars and automobiles using clean diesel technology. But those plans ever materialized, so Honda is ditching those plans and will start concentrating on only hybrid engines.”

By 2013, the article said “Honda says it will have as many as five hybrid models on its domestic and international markets. The firm plans on introduce a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) that same year, which would compete with the Nissan Leaf. But hybrid technology appears to be the path that Honda wants to follow, and by phasing out older technologies while focusing on one technology, hybrid, Honda hopes that an increased manufacturing of car batteries will allow for scale. If all goes Honda’s way, hybrid Civics would soon cost about the same or even less than those that use the older, gas-guzzling engines.”

Here’s a quick way for the U.S. auto industry to wean America’s away from the internal combustion engine: Do as Henry Ford did with the Model T. According to Wikipedia, his introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry.

According to the Wikipedia article: “He is credited with “Fordism” that is, the mass production of large numbers of inexpensive automobiles using the assembly line , coupled with high wages for his workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace.”

An affordable electric or hybrid car that follows Ford’s Model T vision will do more than any government policy to wean Americans away from the fossil fuel internal combustion engine. Can consumerism be the key to combating global climate change?

According to the Wikipedia article, “By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model T’s.” Between the Big Three U.S. auto makers and foreign competition, there’s no reason why by 2018 more than half of U.S. automobiles will be electric or hybrid vehicles.