By Prius Engagement: Honda Reveals New Insight

by Robert Farago

Published: October 2nd, 2008

by prius engagement honda reveals new insight

Like shooting fish in a barrel this one. I mean, what insight does the Insight show, other than “Build me a Prius knock-off, quick!” Still, Honda bloody well went and did it (unlike every other automakers we could name). So what else did we learn? Not a lot really. Honda’s still using their Integrated Motor Assist™ (IMA™) hybrid technology, which yields its mpg benefits by downsizing the internal combustion engine. Honda’s still planning on under-cutting the Prius’ price to knock-out 200k units (100k in the U.S.). We can also guess that the production car may not be nearly so blingy in the lighting department. And we can hope that its gaping maw is not strictly necessary for cooling or some such thing. As for the all-important mpgs… nothing yet.

Robert Farago

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4 of 27 comments

John on Oct 02, 2008

Back when these pictures were first released, another TTAC reader pointed out the smaller rear wheels. This particuliar perspective hides it somewhat but a rear perspective might accentuate it. After looking at it a bit, the relative rear wheel size reminds me of the arms of a T-rex.

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PVDave on Oct 02, 2008
netrun : And if y’all don’t remember, Honda and Toyota got their start over here copying American designs. Honda’s copy+paste design department has a lot of experience. Huh? In the 1970s, the little RWD coupes from Toyota and Nissan stole US design (my '73 Corolla had a 5/8 scale Ford "Nine-inch" rear axle), but any designs Honda stole came from Europe: What two box, front wheel drive cars were coming out of Detroit when the Civic debuted in 1973? Toyota didn't go to FWD until the early eighties (and started with the Starlet, not their mainstream product), but Honda launched their car line with innovative, FWD product. I agree Honda is much more conservative today, but the company also sells more cars to a wider audience. Perhaps that’s the price of success.

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Geotpf on Oct 02, 2008
Redbarchetta : October 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 am Honda plans to sell 100k of these a year in the US and GM has what 8 hybrids on the market right now selling how many a year under 20,000 or something. Doesn’t Ford sell more Escape/Mariner hybrids than GM sells of all their hybrids combined. They should have stuck with the hybrids are a fad and put that money into a better Cobalt, Aveo or executive bonuses. Hybrid sales January through August (that is, eight months' worth): GM's 6 hybrids: 5,848 Ford's 2 hybrids: 14,025 Nissan Altima Hybrid: 6,732 Honda's 2 hybrids: 25,773 (25,577 for the Civic alone) Toyota's 6 hybrids: 182,868 (119,688 for the Prius alone-the hybrid versions of the Highlander, RX400h, and Camry also all sold over 10,000 units each) http://www.hybridcars.com/market-dashboard/august-2008-dashboard-undersupply-and-discouraged-buyers-24953.html There's a boatload of fail for GM here, and lots of missed opportunities for Honda and Ford.

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Buick61 on Oct 02, 2008
Geotpf : October 2nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm Redbarchetta : October 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 am Honda plans to sell 100k of these a year in the US and GM has what 8 hybrids on the market right now selling how many a year under 20,000 or something. Doesn’t Ford sell more Escape/Mariner hybrids than GM sells of all their hybrids combined. They should have stuck with the hybrids are a fad and put that money into a better Cobalt, Aveo or executive bonuses. Hybrid sales January through August (that is, eight months’ worth): GM’s 6 hybrids: 5,848 Ford’s 2 hybrids: 14,025 Nissan Altima Hybrid: 6,732 Honda’s 2 hybrids: 25,773 (25,577 for the Civic alone) Toyota’s 6 hybrids: 182,868 (119,688 for the Prius alone-the hybrid versions of the Highlander, RX400h, and Camry also all sold over 10,000 units each) http://www.hybridcars.com/market-dashboard/august-2008-dashboard-undersupply-and-discouraged-buyers-24953.html There’s a boatload of fail for GM here, and lots of missed opportunities for Honda and Ford. Volkswagen/Audi: 0 Hyundai: 0 Mazda: 0 (unless you count the rebadged Escape) Mitsubishi: 0 Subaru: 0 Mercedes-Benz: 0 BMW: 0 Suzuki: 0 If GM had a boatload a fail, so be it. But they made a pretty huge investment so far, and considering they didn't just license it from Toyota (as did Nissan), they came up with an advanced and capable system. These other guys didn't even show up to the battle.

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