Peter Lyon
December 15, 2024
When it was launched in 1999, the Honda Insight hybrid may not have been the first gasoline-hybrid car on the market, but it certainly was the most economical with mileage of up to 70 mpg. It lost the “first-ever hybrid” title to the Toyota Prius which debuted in 1997. Now, in 2024, we are witnessing the dawn of the brand’s first electric SUV.
The Insight was designed from the ground up as a hybrid with a combination of revolutionary technologies and it remains the most fuel-efficient non-BEV automobile ever sold in America with an EPA highway mileage rating of 70 mpg. Now celebrating its quarter-century milestone, the Insight was however the first mass-production hybrid-electric vehicle ever sold in the United States, and continues today with hybrid-electric vehicles playing a key role in the company’s electrification strategy.
“Twenty-five years after making history with America’s first hybrid-electric vehicle, hybrids now account for more than 25% of Honda auto sales,” said Jessika Laudermilk, assistant vice president of Honda Auto Sales. “As we advance step-by-step toward our goal of carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities, our popular hybrid models are a critical part of our longer-term electrification strategy that supports our ultimate goal of zero environmental impact by 2050.”
Built alongside the NSX and S2000 sports cars at the company’s Takanezawa Plant in Japan, the award-winning first-generation Honda Insight remains the most fuel-efficient gasoline-powered mass production automobile ever sold in America with an EPA mileage ratings of 61 mpg city and 70 mpg highway. Equipped standard with an engaging 5-speed manual transmission, the original Insight was sold from 1999-2006.
In order to achieve their goal of making Insight the world’s most fuel-efficient gasoline-powered automobile, Honda engineers developed a combination of forward-thinking technologies, including an all-new Integrated Motor Assist hybrid powertrain, the world’s smallest, lightest and most efficient 1.0-litre gasoline automobile engine, a sophisticated aerodynamic design and a lightweight aluminum body and structure.
Insight’s advanced aerodynamics and the use of aluminum for the two-seater’s skin and the frame were critical to achieving its record fuel economy rating. Honda pioneered the use of aluminum in automobiles with the first-generation NSX supercar being the world’s first mass-produced all-aluminium production car.
This experience, and many of the same technologies, were applied to the design of Insight to create a new type of lightweight aluminium structure with high levels of body rigidity and advanced safety performance at a lower cost. Utilizing stamped aluminum sheets, an extruded aluminum frame and aluminium die-castings the body weight of Insight was nearly 50% less than the steel body of a Civic Hatchback, yet with 38% more torsional rigidity.
CARLIST THOUGHTS
As we remember Honda’s pioneering efforts in hybrids more than a quarter century ago, the brand is in the process of going to the next step in electrification—launching its first-ever electric SUV, the Prologue. Honda will begin EV production of its original EVs based on the new Honda-developed EV platform at the Honda EV Hub in Ohio in late 2025.
