Insight vs. Prius battle heats up

 Head to the movies this summer and you’re going to see some battles.  Harry Potter vs. Lord Voldemort.  John Connor vs. angry motorcycles.  Mr. Spock vs. true fans.  But one more battle is shaping up to be a knock-down, drag-out slugfest:  the battle between Honda’s 2010 Insight and Toyota’s 2010 Prius.

Back in March, Honda struck first when it announced the pricing on its little eco-baby: $20,470.  It was a clear shot across the bow of Toyota, whose own green darling (the third-generation Prius) hits U.S. and Japanese dealers in a week or so, with a starting price of $22,750. 

Ostensibly, Honda’s bargain-bin pricing shook Toyota up a bit. 

Honda Insights -- both old and new -- celebrate Earth Day in Anaheim

American Honda Motors celebrated Earth Day at the Honda Center in Anaheim with a multi-sponsored festival, a Honda Insight (the old one) “homecoming” and a public ride-and-drive of the 2010 Honda Insight that recently went on sale.

Although only about 40 of the older hybrids showed up to the event, Honda spokesmanKurt Antonious mentioned that a few owners traveled thousands of miles to be there for the “Homecoming.” “I’m amazed with how far people have come to join us today… .One drove all the way from New Jersey.”

On hand for the green event was hypermiler Wayne Gerdes of Wadsworth, Ill., -- the man who laid claim to coining the term “hypermiler” to describe a driver who gets the maximum mpg with sometimes extreme driving habits. Wayne, who runs the online forum, Cleanmpg.com, said he first posted the term on a popular autos forum just after Sept. 11.

A less-pricey Prius

 

Toyota, apparently spooked by the arrival of the budget-priced Honda Insight hybrid in showrooms last month, is shaving $1,000 off the sticker of the Prius.

Faced with a collapse of the hybrid market and the arrival of the Insight with its $19,800 base price, Toyota blinked and decided to cut the price of the 2010 Prius to $21,000, down from a base price of $22,000 for the 2009 model, according to Bloomberg News.

Toyota plans to announce the pricing on the new Prius on Tuesday, and the car — the first full redesign of the Prius since the ’04 model year — should start showing up in Southern California showrooms in late May.

How many Toyota will sell is another question. Hybrid sales have plummeted along with gas prices, and the Prius hasn’t been immune to the trend. Sales fell 56% in March compared with a year ago, and dealers were reporting 80 days' worth of inventory — a far cry from last summer when every Prius basically disappeared from dealer lots as fast as it showed up.

UPDATE: Toyota confirmed today that there will be a base 2010 Prius priced at $21,000, but that it won't go on sale until later this year. The Prius that arrives in dealer showrooms next month will start at $22,000, the same as the 2009 model.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Photos: (Insight, left, and Prius, right) by Honda and Toyota

Back-to-back hybrid smack: Insight vs. Prius

 

In the handful of people who might actually enjoy seeing gasoline return to $4 a gallon, let's include marketing managers for the 2010 Honda Insight (shown left) and 2010 Toyota Prius (shown right), a pair of all-new hybrids set to do battle this spring. They'll be successful with gas at $2 a gallon, but they'd likely be smash hits if gasoline prices go back up.

Though both names are familiar, these are two new cars. The Honda Insight introduced gasoline-electric hybrids to the U.S. market in 1999, but that car was a little hot dog-shaped two-seater that never sold in big volume. Toyota was a little later to the hybrid party with the Prius, but it was a four-door with a usable rear seat, and it became a far bigger hit than the Insight. It still sells well - the Prius accounts for more than half the hybrid cars sold in the U.S.
  
For 2010, the Insight is back, but it's an entirely different car - in fact, the resemblance to the Prius is undeniable. It's a four-door hatchback with room for five, powered by a 1.3-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine, aided by an electric motor.
  
The 2010 Prius is slightly larger than the 2009 model it replaces, and is classified by the EPA as a "midsize" car, while the Insight is a "compact." Really, the difference in interior space is not that noticeable. The Prius' 1.5-liter four-cylinder gas engine is now 1.8 liters, and while the basic hybrid battery pack is essentially the same as in 2009, the rest of the drive system is, Toyota says, 90 percent new.
 
Here are the dueling hybrids in a nutshell:

Honda's hybrid pricing gambit: the sub-$20,000 Insight

Honda's much-anticipated Prius fighter may double as a recession fighter.

The Japanese automaker said today that when the 2010 Honda Insight hybrid hits dealer lots in two weeks, it will carry a base price of $19,800. That puts an end to months of speculation over just how much less expensive the new Honda would be than the Toyota Prius, currently the top-selling hybrid in the U.S.

At under twenty grand, the Insight will be the least expensive new hybrid available in the country; even the more feature-laden EX version of the Insight, which includes alloy wheels and paddle shifters, will be under the Prius' $22,000 starting sticker. By pricing it so low -- almost $4,000 less than its own Civic hybrid -- yet delivering a car that looks and behaves remarkably similar to the current Prius, Honda is making a risky bet that cost-conscious consumers will be lured to choose its hybrids over non-hybrid alternatives. Meanwhile, with a new far more fuel-efficient 2010 Prius set to hit showrooms in June, the Insight could lose out on buyers who care more about green (as in ecology) than green (as in dough).

Honda apparently has its eyes trained on a broader swath of customers. The Insight, said Dick Colliver, executive vice president for Honda's U.S. sales arm, "brings the cost of entry for hybrid technology within closer reach of an entirely new car-shopping audience." The automaker hopes people who otherwise wouldn't have considered a hybrid will choose the Insight because it's cheaper to buy and operate than comparable vehicles.

Honda's new hybrid is hot in Japan

The new Honda Insight hybrid, slated to go on sale in April in the U.S., is already big in Japan.

Reuters reported today that Honda has received almost triple the number of orders it expected for the car after it went on sale in its homeland on Feb 6.

“The response has been overwhelming,” Honda executive Hiroshi Kobayashi told reporters at a test-drive event in Tokyo. Demand has been such that the automaker intends to expand its production plans for the car, Kobayashi said, although he declined to specify by how much.

The Insight, he added,  is drawing interest from a broad range of vehicle owners, from mini-vehicles to sedans to minivans. There’s currently a 30-day wait to take delivery of a new Insight.

The strong response is occurring even as the Japanese auto market suffers through the same slump that is depressing auto sales around the globe. New vehicle sales were off 20% last month in Japan.

The Insight’s popularity could be due to its price — it starts at around 1.89 million yen (just under $20,000 at current exchange rates), almost 20% less than the rival Toyota Prius.

In Japan, Honda is also boasting fuel economy of around 61 miles per gallon for the Inisght. Based on U.S. mileage tests, the current-generation Prius gets 46 MPG in combined city/highway driving. The third-generation Prius, due in showrooms in the U.S. and Japan this spring, will get around 50 MPG combined, Toyota has said.

You may remember that the original Insight, a futuristic looking two-seat that hit these shores in December 1999 — actually beating the Prius to the U.S. market by more than six months. The Prius made up the lost ground, however, and became the purpose-built hybrid of choice for Americans. The original Insight was R.I.P. by 2006.

The new Insight is slated to go on sale in the U.S. in April. Officially unveiled at the Detroit auto show in January, it has been lampooned a bit for looking too much like, well, the Prius. But, as in Japan, it’s expected to cost less than the Toyota hybrid, which should be an important selling point in these economically challenged times.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Photo: The new Honda Insight hybrid is unveiled at the Prince Park Tower hotel in Tokyo on Feb. 5. Photo credit: Gianni Giosue / European Pressphoto Agency