The new Honda Insight hybrid promises to revolutionize the hybrid market by making gas-electric cars affordable. But the five-door hatchback with a rock-bottom price isn’t the Prius killer Honda might have hoped for.
Honda isn’t saying exactly what the car unveiled today at the Detroit auto show will cost when it rolls into showrooms on April 22 (Earth Day) but it will undercut the Toyota Prius by several thousand dollars. That won’t be enough to knock a car that’s synonymous with hybrid technology from its pedestal, but the 2010 Insight poses the first credible threat to Toyota’s dominance of the hybrid market.
“The Insight has the potential to put the Prius in a world of hurt,” says George Peterson, president of industry analysis firm AutoPacific.
But the Insight has more than a great price going for it. With its stellar fuel economy, snappy acceleration and clever interactive dashboard designed to help drivers maximize efficiency, the Insight is the world’s first fun hybrid.
Honda spent more than two years developing the car, which draws its name from the funky two-seater Insight hybrid that was the first gas-electric vehicle sold in America when it was introduced in 1999. The car never quite caught on, and Honda could only watch as the Prius outsold Honda’s hybrids by four to one. Honda discontinued the Insight in 2006 and pulled the plug on the Accord hybrid the following year.
The new Insight builds on the Integrated Motor Assist technology underpinning the Civic hybrid, which remains in Honda’s lineup and is slightly larger than the Insight. It sandwiches a 13-horsepower electric motor between the 88-horsepower four-cylinder engine and the continuously variable transmission. The combination delivers 98 horsepower and enough torque to let you accelerate away from a traffic light with a grin.
The interior has lots of clever touches—an iPod holder, storage compartments that can be reconfigured about a bazillion ways and, in a stroke of genius, a storage slot under the cargo floor for the retractable cargo cover. Options include a navi system, Bluetooth and iPod integration, though including those will probably bump the price above 20 grand. But the coolest gadget comes standard in every model—the interactive Ecological Drive Assist System.
