Honda Motor Co. will unveil a prototype of its eagerly awaited low-cost hybrid car due for launch in early 2009 at the Paris auto show next month, Japan’s No.2 automaker said on Thursday.
Honda’s Small Hybrid Sports Concept was shown Geneva last year. The car is powered by a Honda IMA integrated motor assist four-cylinder gas/electric hybrid system that drives the front wheels through a continuously variable transmission.The five-door, five-seater compact hatchback – Honda’s second attempt at a dedicated hybrid car after it discontinued production of the two-seater Insight in 2006 – will also be called Insight.
Honda is looking to close the gap with pioneer Toyota Motor Corp. with a new family of cheaper, more fuel-efficient gasoline-electric cars by slashing the cost and weight of its hybrid system.
Honda has said it wants to sell 200,000 units of the new Insight annually, half of that in North America. The car, which executives said they wanted to sell for less than 2 million yen $18,500, will also be sold in Japan and Europe starting next spring.
20000 for that tiny car?
I LOVE hondas, their reliability is excellent and I am looking towards the day when they will kick out Toyota out of the list of the most reliable cars.
Honda, the power of dreams!
Put your money down now folks. Hondas hold their value very well. This is hot, and practical. Honda has never been desirous of the mass market like Toyota is. Quality of Toyotas has fallen dramatically as they rushed to be all things to all people.
In the used market there are generations of
Camry that are more expensive than models that came out three or four years later due to declining quality in the new series.
Even the first Insights, which had very poor batteries, are now valuable because they are amazing platforms for building drag racing cars.
I owned a beautiful Honda del sol, bought used, that I had for over 100k and 6 years. It only depreciated 6k over those years. 1k per year for a car that got great mileage and was an absolute blast to drive.
Remember that the electric helper motor will give performance off the line, where Honda’s have always been weak.
Most cars aren’t investments. This one will be.
Keep in mind that the toyota planetary gear drive is far superior to honda’s CVT. Like Microsoft, this is a “see how great our *next* product will be!” type of announcement.
Looks like a glans with wheels.
The car in red is pretty hot, sadly, the Honda Press release for the Insight that they WILL be selling is a little more plane jane.
http://www.hondanews.com/categories/1097/releases/4722
Honda NOT ATTACKING TOYOTA, but delivering a body blow to GM and Ford !!! More Japanese Hybrids will be absorbed by America and each one is a BIG LOSS FOR DETROIT !!! Detroit’s punishment for falling behind the curve !!! SUV anyone ???
However it’s a big OVERSIGHT for Honda to call it the Insight !!! They need something snazzier !!!
#7 – JimD – However it’s a big OVERSIGHT for Honda to call it the Insight !!! They need something snazzier !!!
How about Honda Nofatso?
AAARRG – Wrong Picture Posted
(Classic bait & switch again)
No surprise, the new Honda Hybrid (HoHy) is nearly identical to the Prius, on the outside.
Base 2009 Prius : 20 995
Base HoHy : 18 995
Will be curious to see what was skimped out compared to the Prius.
I’m happy that there will be more hybrids, that are GREAT hybrids, out there soon.
#9 – at least you RTFA. #1 and #5 didn’t.
The spy photo Hondas [I think] were of test vehicles deliberately made to look like Prius. Though, lets face it, there ain’t a lot of radical alternatives in aerodynamics for street vehicles.
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=20368
The picture is not of the 5 door hatchback that Honda will introduce in prototype form in 2009. The picture is of their sports car hybrid concept.
The rumor is that the 5-door will be unmistakably “different,” calling attention to itself with unique styling.
Let’s hope every hybrid is a plug-in.
Call me when these things actually get off the showroom floors, and are SERIOUSLY distributed in sufficient numbers to qualify as an “effort”. But first, define “Cheap”. It may be projected as “$18.5K” now. But you know it’ll end up as $20K or higher. That’s not “Cheap”. And do they have to use a body style that looks like a well worn toy, with a fresh coat of varnish? Cars in the US, aren’t supposed to be driven over 60mph. At least not legally. And I doubt most people buying a hybrid expect to break the sound barrier in one. So what’s with the ultra-aerodynamic design? Is that going to add a few extra miles of range to the thing? Fixing the damn traffic light timings would do more. Sleek designs won’t improve stop and go mileage.
Where the F*** is Detroit with real hybrids? Not the STUPID SUV crap they have been trying to pass off as green vehicles the last couple of years? I just do not get it. America should be able to beat the pants off of the Japanese, but continue to stumble because of short term profit concerns. Soon the Koreans will get a clue, and one of the big 3 is gonna die.
It is really sad.
Don
#12 Glenn, at highway speeds, resistance is :
– 25% the wheels
– 75% the body
Remember the kid that put plastic all around his Civic to make it look like a F1 car (without spoilers), and is then able to get over 50MPG on the highway.
there is a difference between CHEAP and INEXPENSIVE! what do you mean! Honda has a good reputation and its cars are not DIRT CHEAP! say what you mean.
Official Pics hi-res
http://www.autobloggreen.com/photos/paris-08-honda-insight-concept/1017466/
By the time it’s available in NA, the Generation 3 Prius will be out…
My favorite car that I’ve owned, and I’ve owned quite a few, was a 1989 Honda CRX. Ran like a bat-out-o-hell until I wreaked it in 1999. I will get another Honda when I get the chance. It very well could be a hybrid or full electric. Man, I really enjoyed that car. 🙂
Ack! Why do hybrids have to look so “retarted”?
“Honda is looking to close the gap with pioneer Toyota…”
Honda is the pioneer, they came out with the original Insight before the Prius.
That said, I think Toyota has the better system.
#19, nope, Toyota was first. The Prius was in Japan a few years before being introduced in the North American market, and before the Insight.
#2 According to an article I read in magazine while I was in Europe this spring, the car manufacturer reliability ratings are as follows:
1) Honda
2) Ford
3) Toyota
#21, I’d like to see how the author of that article came up with Ford being #2 in quality ratings ahead of Toyota, because I don’t believe it for a second. That article contradicts pretty much every thing I’ve ever read and personally experienced about the reliability of cars.
Nice vehicle for someone with no pride in self. Hybrid Tahoe and Hybrid Escalade all the way.
To give credit though, it’s at least a Personally Owned Vehicle. Mass transit of any sort is for the inferior and unnaceptable for the American Minimum Way of Life.
#21, Let me fix that list for you…
1) Honda
Accord
2) Toyota
man, the lighting at the paris auto show sucks – the car looks like it’s covered in birdshit
Why don’t they do something cool like a hybrid HumVee? I’m not talking a Hummer H2, I’m talking the original, cool , military grade HumVee. Something you could run over a protester with and not even feel it. That would be cool.