2010 Honda Insight to debut at Paris Motor Show 2008, launch in April, priced $19k

The Honda Insight is back from the dead!

Photo: 2010 Honda Insight for Paris Auto Show, launch in April 2009

Honda has decided that enough is enough with all the celebrity butts plonking themselves in Prius and getting themselves photographed, leading to icon status for the Toyota eco-warrior. So Honda is showing off the new 2010 Honda Insight hybrid at the upcoming Paris Motor Show (officially known as Paris International Auto Show) in October.

And Honda is coming at the Prius hard. The new 2010 Honda Insight hybrid will roar (roar?) into US in April 2009. Expected price is believed to be around US $ 18,500 – 19,000. At that price, the Prius can kiss the Insight’s hybrid ass. I do not know exactly how much, but that places the 2010 Honda Insight more than a couple of thousands less than than the Prius.

Chevrolet Volt? Well, the new Insight hybrid is here and now, and at that price, will sell. No one expects Honda to come out with a dud anyway – they have a reasonably successful hybrid in the Honda Civic already. In fact, the price is so low because Honda has managed to take the Civic’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) hybrid tech, make it a lot more cost efficient, and plonk it into the new Insight hybrid.

Okay, photos now. There are just two photos of the Insight 2010 available as of now, and one of them is useless (features an FCX Clarity etc), so I am giving you the good-looking picture here.

At one look, you would love the design of the 2010 Honda Insight hybrid more than the Prius. There are obvious design similarities between the two for sure – but this looks more modern, the Prius looks dull. Sure a lot of that chrome and lighting and snazzy wheels may not make it into the production version which will debut in April 2010, but there is no doubt this is a reasonably good looker. Sure, Honda would like to tell us that the new 2010 Insight hybrid looks quite like the FCX Clarity fuel-cell car.

So what else do we know as of now?

One, the Insight was a big success and a big failure, when it started selling in 2000. After all, gas prices were low, and the Insight was really weird to look at, and reports say it was quite dull to drive too. Notwithstanding that, it managed to stay ahead in the mileage game easily, and was for 6 years awarded the engine of the year award.

Here I present to you a photo of the old first generation Insight so we all know how far we have come, and how much older we all are.

Photo: First generation Honda Insight hybrid, 70 MPG!

Honda says that the cost efficiencies engineered into the new 2010 Insight hybrid will make it cheaper than any other hybrid around that is comparable. Do not even think about comparing the new Insight with the Chevy Volt – they are too different, the Volt would be priced at $ 35,000 to $ 40,000 and it comes a year or two later.

If the demand for hybrids and other fuel efficient cars stay high, Honda has a winner in the new Insight.

Unlike the last Inisght, the 2010 version will have 5 doors, all the amenities you expect in a normal car, and yes, folding rear seats. if the performance and fuel efficiency are better than the Prius at a price that is cheaper, Toyota better be working hard at improving the Prius so it can stand a chance against the new Insight hybrid.

Honda believes it can sell 100,000 of the 200,000 Insight hybrids it would produce in North America.