Featured Yet another article about the Honda Insight

They're trying to make it look more "mainstream" (aka - boring a$$ sedan)

Honda Wants To Make Hybrids Normal

 

I like it. Kind of reminds me of the Chevy Malibu.

 

In 1997, Toyota brought out the first Prius in Japan and there was no Honda Insight. Our Gen-1 Prius was exceptionally more practical than the first Honda Insight. In one respect, Honda like the current Hyundai has been playing 'catch up'. I'm not holding my breath.

Bob Wilson

 

I am just glad that everyone is now seeing there is a market for Hybrids. The better anyone makes them, I'm good. But, I will always be biased to Toyota.

P.S.- Love the "insight" pun.............very clever! Very good! "no Honda in sight"

 

honda has been in the game for awhile, bit hunday is blowing by them.

 

i thought that crown was held by camry?

 

The twentysomethings that I work with seem to like hybrids..........as long as it isn't a Prius. The name still turns people off. Whatever. It is the "hip" thing to do to get a sexy hybrid and Hyundai seems to be doing a good job of producing very good looking cars.

 

I am one of those who thinks the 2016 Prius looks good. I love the Prime. I also like the way the Mirai looks, but I doubt the Mirai will survive the market.

 

Little side topic, but Honda is fairly soon to start selling the 2018 Accord Hybrid. Nice thing is NO LOSS IN TRUNK SPACE / HAS FOLD DOWN REAR SEATS. That will help a lot. BUT, if the equivalent gas only costs something like $3,500 or $4k less, that's a really tough sell for the hybrid considering may only save a few hundred to maybe 5 or 600 bucks a year on gas.

As for Toyota, still seems they ought to be in showroom with amusement park sign saying like 'u really ought to be under 6' to drive this car'.

2018 Honda Accord is absolutely roomier for a driver than a 2018 Camry. I don't care what the spec sheets say.

 

The new Insight will be Honda's best looking vehicle, verses the Prius
May also be plug-in to differentiate from Accord and Camry Hybrids.
Regardless the Prius needs some competition.

 

I thought you were going to refer to this.

Toyota Crown - Wikipedia

 

It looks a lot like the new Accord.

 

Sure, the Insight proto looks more mainstream than Prius. But after all the hype leading up to it, I doubt will sell anywhere near the Prius.
Is Honda even intending to match Prius sales? Honda has a history of putting hybrids out, then taking them away for a year. They did just that with the 9th gen Accord hybrid.

I doubt Honda will make these new Insights in large enough quantity or have them priced low enough to compete much with Prius. Maybe Insight will top out at 3k units a month in US. Honda makes money of Civic, Accord, CR-V, etc... They likely won't make much profit on Insights, so why bother too much.

 

you may be spot on. it could be a case where their hybrids are too expensive to try to push too many.

 

As a sedan, I don't see it competing all that much with the Prius line of hatches.

"Power will come from a 1.5-liter engine connected to two electric motors and a lithium-ion battery. In most conditions, the Insight runs on electricity alone, with the gasoline engine powering a generator that in turn sends power to the front wheels. The gasoline engine connects to the Insight’s wheels only occasionally, when the car is running at a steady speed on the highway and the system locks up to send power directly from engine to the front wheels for greater efficiency."

Sounds like it operates more like the Voltec design.

 

AFAIK, both Accord hybrid and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV operate with a clutch and one final drive ratio gear, locking at higher speeds. Below that (or with some other conditions), they use an electric path. Much different from Voltec set.