Ah, here it is at last, the 2019 Honda Insight. And it’s, uh, fine. It’s just fine. The good news is the fuel economy’s super legit.
This is the third-gen Insight from Honda, following the previous and adorably egg-shaped models. It’s a lot more regular car-looking, which was Honda’s intention. This is to help normalize hybrid cars to the public, which is something I’m definitely for. Even if said hybrid car is kind of a snooze.
There’s a picture of it up at the top of this post. Mm. Car.
The new Insight will be priced between the Civic and the Accord. It’s powered by Honda’s two-motor hybrid system, which consists of a 1.5-liter Atkinson cycle engine, an electric propulsion motor and a lithium-ion battery pack. Total system output comes to 151 horsepower and 197 lb-ft of electric motor torque.
But, hey, at least it gets 55 mpg in the city! That’s pretty impressive.
Look, don’t get me wrong, I want people buy the Insight and cut down money on fuel costs because that’s never a bad thing. And since the Insight has never advertised itself as a performance car, I can’t get mad at it for its frankly anemic power output.
It’s here purely as a people mover, which I hope will help get more hybrids on the roads. As Patrick once pointed out, it could also bring down the costs of battery production so bigger and better things can come more cheaply to people later on.