What is it?
The Insight name returned to Honda’s American line-up for 2019 after five years away. This Prius challenger is far more conventional in looks than either of the previous Insights, however, and has creature comforts aplenty rather than a weight-saving, stripped-down interior.
Honda’s goal has been to create a “premium compact saloon”. The Insight Hybrid is being sold in the US, Canada and Japan, but there are no current plans to bring it to Europe. Stateside, it slots into the electrified range below the Accord Hybrid and Clarity Plug-In Hybrid.
The Insight rides on architecture from the Honda Civic, which is the number-one-selling car in Canada and number two in the US, although both are heavily outsold by the most popular SUVs and trucks. It’s fitted with the third generation of Honda’s i-MMD multi-mode hybrid drive system – a very similar set-up to the one that impressed us in the CR-V Hybrid, but paired here with a 1.5-litre Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder rather than the 2.0-litre motor.
What's it like?
The Insight Hybrid consciously avoids polarising eco-car design cues and instead opts for sleek lines that are strongly reminiscent of the current Honda Civic and Accord. When you compare the design with that of the no-compromise Clarity, the benefit is clear.
The theme continues inside, where there’s no Toyota Prius-style, space-age dash layout to immediately give the hybrid game away, just a discreet ‘EV mode’ button on the centre console – one of four available driving modes.
Otherwise the interior is spacious, comfortable and well appointed, especially in the range-topping Touring trim tested here. Honda’s comprehensive suite of driver-assistance systems is standard, including the LaneWatch blindspot cameras. That’s just as well because the regular door mirrors don’t have a wide enough range of adjustment.
The multi-mode drive system manages the transitions between the power sources very well, so much so that the combustion engine’s quietness at part throttle can fool you into thinking that you’re still running in EV mode. You do, however, really know about it when the motor is working hard, because the noise is loud and unpleasant.
The seemingly similar Normal and Eco drive modes are both fine around town but tend to run out of steam at motorway speeds, making Sport handy for a quick burst of acceleration if you pull out to overtake.
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BMW has a point.
Yesterday I travelled from Heathrow to Manchester in my BMW 340i, the computer said my mpg was 51.9 at a speed of 59.6, I did drive carefully but the traffic controled my speed, for a six cylinder car that is excellent.
Trip computers
Great, but in my experience trip computers are not always accurate (my own two cars show optimistic readings of around 3 and 5 mpg versus careful brim to brim calculations). Also, I believe that yesterday there was a prevailing breeze from the south, which would make a difference at motorway speeds.
That's not to say your BMW isn't very efficient, but more than 50mpg from a big six cylinder engine does take some explaining!
Easier to just produce a Civic hybrid?
So, this new Insight is based on the latest Civic, shares much of its powertrain with the CRV (which is based on a version of the Civic's platform) and yet has its own unique styling that resembles the Civic (and Honda's other current generation saloons). Perhaps it'd have been easier and cheaper to simply place the Insight's powertrain in to the Civic.....
PHEV:-Emmmm
"depending on where you live, it could be 124,000 miles before you make your money back…" and in some ways that's all the Canadian needs to know. Other than a noisy unpleasant CVT sound under hard acceleration that is.