Honda Insight hybrid to be cheaper, if dealers cooperate

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The thrust of the new Honda Insight hybrid -- which debuted in Paris this week as a near-production concept -- is to ‘bring hybrid vehicles into a price bracket where a broader range of people can afford them,’ says the press materials. Cheaper, in other words. The current estimate is that the Insight -- powered by a 1.3-liter gas engine and Integrated Motor Assist, good for about 45 mpg, on average -- will cost about $20,000, though final pricing will be announced closer to the on-sale date next spring.

It must have taken a heroic effort for Honda to hit that price point. According to the company, major savings had to be realized in the design and manufacturing of the IMA and other hybrid components (like the battery). Tankers of midnight oil must have been docked right outside Honda’s R&D center.

However, all that hard work -- and the neat marketing and sales strategy designed to undercut Prius -- will amount to little if Honda dealers tag on thousands of dollars more in dealer markups and price premiums, as they have been notoriously doing with the Fit and Civic Hybrid. ‘We don’t like it whenever premiums are added,’ says company spokesman Kurt Antonius. ‘But it’s driven by supply and demand. We don’t condone it but we can’t control it.’

Perhaps not, but Honda of America could probably, oh, let’s say, de-incentivize the practice, and considering that the low entry price of the new Insight hybrid is the whole point, I suspect they probably will.

More about the car: Yes, it looks vaguely like a Prius. ‘We would say it looks more like the Clarity,’ says Antonius, referring to Honda’s sleek and awesome hydrogen-powered car. I would say that the Prius, the GM Volt and the Honda Insight all resemble one another as a consequence of aerodynamics and engineering constraints that nominalize design. In other words, if you want a car of a certain size to carry five passengers and some luggage, and you want it to be as aerodynamically efficient as possible, there’s only so much you can do about styling.

Unlike the Prius, the Insight does not move under electric power alone. Honda has long believed the tradeoffs of weight and cost don’t justify electric-only propulsion. The company expects overall mileage to be like that of the Civic Hybrid.

Honda expects to make 200,000 Insights per year for the world market, 100,000 of them destined for the U.S.

-- Dan Neil

Photo: Honda

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