"Honda Releases Premier Photo of All-New Production-Version 2009 Insight Hybrid" Green Car Advisor

Honda Releases Premier Photo of All-New Production-Version 2009 Insight Hybrid

The Honda Insight is expected to be the most affordable hybrid car available when it goes on sale in the spring of '09.

By Scott Doggett, Contributor

Although the all-new 2009 Honda Insight Hybrid won't make its world debut for another month, when it takes a bow at the Detroit auto show, Japan's No. 2 automaker today released the first photo of the production version of the five-passenger sedan.

Until today, only photos of the concept version of the Insight have been available.

The new Insight -- which takes its name from the original Honda hybrid, the two-seat Insight introduced in 1999 and discontinued in 2006 -- sticks with Honda's proprietary Integrated Motor Assist hybrid system.

It is a somewhat downsized version of the system, though, likely with a smaller battery pack and power control unit than in the IMA system that helps propel the Civic Hybrid. A smaller car, however, can get away with a smaller hybrid system.

While not revolutionary on the technology side of things, the new Insight is a ground-breaker on the price front: Honda has said it will cost less than $20,000, well below the Prius' starting price of $21,500 and the Honda Civic Hybrid's $22,600 base price.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has yet to provide fuel-economy ratings for the Insight, but Honda has hinted they will be on line with the Civic Hybrid, which is EPA rated at 40 miles per gallon in the city and 45 mpg on the highway.

The Insight is expected to have annual global sales of 200,000 vehicles per year -- approximately 100,000 in North America -- and will utilize a new interactive, driver-focused fuel-economy enhancement technology Honda calls the Ecological Drive Assist System.

In a statement released today, Honda wanted to remind everyone that it brought to market the first mass-produced low-emission gasoline vehicles, America's first commercially produced gasoline-electric hybrid car and the world's first EPA-certified hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, the FCX.

To that we repeat, keep up the good work.