F&I Management & Training

The world's cheapest hybrid car has been unveiled by Honda in an attempt to win over motorists facing high fuel costs. Expected to sell at between £12,000 and £15,000, the car, which revives the Insight name, will undercut the best-selling Toyota Prius by at least £3,000, thus bringing hybrid vehicles into the price range of many more motorists. The five-door hatchback, which will be officially unveiled at October's Paris Motor Show, will be powered by a 1.4 litre petrol engine twinned with an electric motor. It will deliver around 60 mpg and is expected to have CO2 emissions of just over 100 g/km. The model will go on sale in spring 2009 and Honda hopes to sell 200,000 Insights a year worldwide. Honda plans to become the first manufacturer to offer a full range of hybrid models from supermini to executive car with at least four vehicles in total scheduled to be launched within the next few years. Currently the Civic IMA is the manufacturer's only hybrid and the Insight is smaller than that model. Future hybrid models are expected to include a sports coupe and a supermini based on the soon-to-be launched new Jazz. Honda predicts that hybrids will account for 10% of its global sales by 2010. In reviving the Insight name, Honda is returning to the name of its pioneering model launch in 1999, which was soon outsold by the Prius.

DATED: 08.09.08

FEED: AW