Honda looking to price 2010 Insight Hybrid under $20k, may build it in the U.S.

Honda has started selling its 2010 Insight Hybrid in Japan with prices starting at 1.8 million yen ($20,052 USD). The Japanese automaker is looking to keep pricing of the U.S. bound Insight right under $20,000 and is supposedly considering building the hybrid in the U.S. if sales hit a target of 100,000 units annually.

According to Honda’s Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo, both goals will be tough for the company but must be necessary to compete with its rival - the Toyota Prius. Honda hopes to sell 100,000 of the Honda Insight Hybrid in the U.S. and 200,000 units worldwide, reports Automotive News.

The 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid will go on sale in the U.S. in April 2009. Power will come from a 1.3L SOHC i-VTEC engine mated to a CVT transmission. Coupled with Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) hybrid technology that allows the Insight to return an EPA rated fuel-economy of 40/43 mpg (city/highway).

2009 Honda FCX Clarity - Road Test

Where’s the best place to meet Jamie Lee Curtis? Why, at the bustling corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Federal Avenue near hippy-dippy Santa Monica, California, where you can’t toss a watermelon without hitting a Toyota Prius.

Jamie Lee will be the one in the merlot-colored Honda, gliding up to one of those rarest of things, a commercial hydrogen fuel pump. Stand there, enjoying the company of the loitering beach bums for a day or three, and you’re all but guaranteed to see her roll in, low on juice, her FCX Clarity shaped like an Australian lungfish and whining like a tomcat being scalped.

On the Santa Monica smugness scale, the Clarity mops the floor with the Prius. It stores hydrogen at a liquefied 5000 psi, plumbs it through a Honda-designed fuel cell with air to make electricity, leaving water as the sole tailpipe effluent. The only powertrain noise is the lynx-like yowl of the fuel cell’s air compressor, plus the tap-tap of Henry Cavendish, the 18th-century discoverer of hydrogen, doing I-told-you-so jigs in his grave.

2010 Honda Insight Hybrid off to a good start in Japan

The 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid is seeing strong demand in its home market of Japan. The 1.89 million yen ($21,000 USD) went on sale in Japan on Feb. 6 and has already received more than 5,000 orders.

“This is so much better than expected. The Insight is priced below 2 million yen, and is energy efficient. We believe consumers like these aspects,” said Honda spokeswoman Natsuno Asanuma.

The 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid will make its U.S. and European debut in March. Honda plans on pricing the U.S. spec Insight right around $19,000, cheaper than the Civic Hybrid.

Powered by a 1.3 SOHC i-VTEC engine mated to a CVT transmission and Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist hybrid technology, the Insight Hybrid returns an estimated 40/43 mpg (city/highway). It has a driving range of more than 400 miles on a full tank.

Honda F1 Race Car - Sport

The definition of “total imposter” is a 47-year-old magazine editor dressed in a Nomex race suit, attempting to look completely at ease while strolling through a Formula 1 factory—in this case, Honda’s, in Brackley, England, 70 miles northwest of London. Honda had been gracious (and foolish) enough to put me in the driver’s seat of its 2007 F1 race car (the RA107), one of just six built. No one at Honda I talk to will even hint at what it cost.

First off, they must get me fitted into a car that has the potential to pull more than 4 g under braking and through corners. Even in a fast street car, the driver has to brace himself while cornering hard to counteract the tendency of the body to move to the outside of the car due to centripetal force. In an F1 car, being held in place is additionally important because there’s as much as four times the force pushing on the driver’s body.

Honda’s build operations manager is Peter Hodgkinson, and the moment he sees the visiting stroller, who stands five feet seven inches and weighs 150 pounds, he says, “You’re about the right size.” Still, it’s a struggle getting in. The driver must step on top of the seat, maneuver gingerly to avoid hitting the winglets and mirrors, and then, standing there, carefully slide down. The seat I’m using was made for one-time Honda test driver James Rossiter, a 25-year-old Brit who’s five foot seven and maybe 10 pounds lighter than me. It’s a tight fit. With some minor but time-consuming adjustments to the length of the seatbelts, the placement of the pedals and the steering wheel, and the amount of padding under my thighs and behind my shoulders, I’m relatively comfortable—if feeling like a chicken trussed up for the oven is comfy.

Honda earns top rating on 2009 Consumer Reports top picks, Detroit 3 at the bottom

Honda has earned Consumer Reports’ top rating for the third straight year. Consumer Reports’ said that Honda makes “the best all-around vehicles for the American drivers.” Honda was followed by Subaru, Toyota and Mazda. Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Volkswagen and BMW tied for fifth place.

How did our American automakers rank? Consumer Reports said that FoMoCo and GM vehicles improved from last year but continue to rank with Chrysler “at the back of the class.” The publication said that no Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep vehicle made the “recommended” list. In fact they were all rated “poor performing products” with “sinking reliability results.”

But if you’re still looking to buy America, Consumer Reports said that the Ford Flex, F-150, Chevy Malibu and the Cadillac CTS “rank near the top of their classes.”

akanobu Ito To Succeed Takeo Fukui As Honda CEO

Takanobu Ito, has been tapped to succeed Takeo Fukui as the next president and CEO of Honda Motor Co. starting in June.

Takanobu Ito, currently the head of global automotive operations at Honda Motor Co., has been tapped as the automaker's next president and CEO starting in June.

Ito, 57, succeeds Takeo Fukui, 64, who has held the post since 2003 and has struggled as of late as the company grapples with global sales declines and a strong yen.The shuffle will be approved at a board of directors' meeting scheduled for late June, Honda said early today.

[via Automotive News]

Leakage: Euro-spec 2009 Honda Insight

We're still six days away from the official unveiling of the 2009 Honda Insight at the Detroit Auto Show, but the crew at Carscoop just couldn't wait to release images of the European-spec hybrid ahead of its debut. The Euro model shown here won't differ too much from the U.S. version, but the stylistic differences between the production version and its conceptual predecessor are obvious at first glance. As we've seen before, the front fascia carries over largely unchanged, although the technorific LED headlamps, deeply recessed fog lamps/air intakes and gaudy brightwork are all left on the designer's desk. The side mirrors have grown in proportion to the door handles, and the C-pillar is noticeably thicker than the concept that bowed in Paris. The rear has also been smoothed over, with the Prius-esque (or is that CRX-inspired?) hatch losing a bit of glass, along with the contoured cut-out for the license plate, which is now mounted lower on the bumper, with a prominent "H" badge floating on a body-colored panel. Although the interior hasn't been revealed in full, we get a brief glimpse of the central-mounted tach, "eco" gauges and second tier speedo, which benefits from a backlight that transitions from green to blue when the driver mashes the accelerator and unleashes the full fury of the small-displacement engine through the CVT gearbox. Sales will begin in the U.S. and abroad this spring, with a starting price rumored to hover around $20,000. [Source: Carscoop]