Honda Insight 2009: The key facts

In the Summary of 2007 Mid-Year CEO Speech (July 18, 2007), Honda's plan to introduce a new dedicated hybrid vehicle in 2009 at a price level lower than the Civic Hybrid was revealed for the first time.

Since then, Honda developed the car and we have seen many spy photos and renderings. 2008 Paris Motor Show was the big event where Honda displayed the Honda Insight Concept, which provided a clear indication of how the production model will look like and confirmed what Honda said about Insight 's exterior design ("an exterior design that employs the concept of the FCX Clarity" - Summary of 2008 Mid-Year CEO Speech).

11th January 2009 will be the date when all the rumors and speculations will come to end, as Honda's eagerly anticipated new hybrid model will be officially revealed in Detroit. Therefore, I thought that it is a good idea to summarize the information that have been around up to now.

The only official information is the new Ecological Drive Assist System, which will help drivers achieve better fuel economy in real world driving conditions, that Insight will be equipped with. It will be the world's first system to combine three different functions to enhance fuel economy: an ECON Mode which controls engine, transmission and other powertrain components to support more fuel-efficient driving; a guidance function that helps drivers become more fuel-efficient behind the wheel using the colour of the speedometer display; and a scoring function that provides instant and long term feedback on driving techniques, after each journey.

Those of you that had the chance to buy January issue of CAR magazine will have read also some interesting information (issue 557, pp. 96-101), which you can find below.

Key Facts:

• Major hybrid to break cover since the story began in 1997 when Toyota launched the groundbreaking Prius.
• The worldwide sales plan for this vehicle is approximately 200,000 units annually (Summary of 2007 Year-End CEO Speech).
• Goes on sale in Spring 2009.
  
• Cots has come down because the latest version of Honda's Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) has been completely redesigned in order to make it more economical to manufacture than before (IMA essentially combines a brushless electric motor wrapped around the engine's crankshaft and it's just about the simplest way there is to combine an electric drive with a combustion engine).
• Any similarity to the Insight's rival Prius is offset in the flesh by the fact that it's smaller than the Toyota and, smaller than Honda's own Civic.
• Because there was no need to design a bodyshell capable of handling a range of engines, Honda engineers were able to optimize the Insight's strucutre for weight and rigidity much more effectively.
• The new engine is based on the 1.4-litre i-Vtec Jazz block but with a bespoke two-valve, dual-spark cylinder head (the spark plugs fire either sequentially or at the same time to achieve the most efficient combustion).
• Honda will continue to use Nickel Metal Hydride battery technology as it feels that the technology needs to advance further according to Masaaki Kato, president of Honda's research unit.
• The latest version of IMA brings more efficiency for less cost. Significantly, the power has been reduced from that of the Civic. At 20 bhp, the old unit accounted for nearly 20% of the entire output of the car, a figure that was thought to be too high to achieve the optimum balance between power efficiency and cost.
• Reducing the power of the output of the motor means the battery can be smaller and cheaper too. It will have fewer than the existing 132 cells with a corresponding drop from the power provided by the 158 volts of the Civic.
• It can motor along at up to 31mph under electrical power alone.
• While the Civic needs a secondary inverter, along with a primary one, to handle a dedicated electrically-powered air-conditioning compressor, Insight has just one.
• The engine is fired up by a conventional starter motor rather than the IMA unit, which also provides a stop/start function in traffic.
• Fuel consumption should be around 65mpg (European's EUDC extra-urban figure measured in Imperial (UK) miles per gallon), with CO2 emissions of just over 100g/km (105g/km est).
• Expected price tag in UK of £14,995, undercutting Prius by £3,000 and Civic by £2,000
• Expected price tag in Japan below ¥2,000,000 according to the Summary of 2008 Year-End CEO Speech (Japanese Best Car magazine claimed at the beginning of December that the base price will be ¥1,950,000).
• As for the driving experience, the insiders who have tried it describe it as exciting and groundbreaking.
• Enigne size: 1339cc;
  
• Power output: 94 bhp + 15 bhp with IMA (est);
• Torque: 90 lb ft + 65 lb ft (est)
• 0-60 mph acceleration: 12 sec (est)
• Top speed of 115 mph
• Weight: 1250 kg (est)