Honda's big debut at the Detroit Auto Show this week is a new – totally new – version of the Insight hybrid. In fact, the new Insight is such a departure from the first and second generations of the vehicle, it seemed worth collecting a few pictures of the three vehicles and putting them together for readers to see at a glance just how much has changed over the years.
To be clear, the just-revealed Honda Insight is a prototype version of the actual new hybrid that will go on sale in the U.S. later this year, but if you know anything about Honda's auto show concept vehicles, you know that they are usually dramatically close to the final production version (see also: the new Acura RDX prototype).
So, the red car above is the original Insight, which arrived in the U.S. back in 1999 after an auto show debut in 1997. This car got a combined fuel economy rating of 53 miles per gallon. The second-gen (in white, below) got only 41 combined mpg. It was a bigger, heavier car with somewhat more traditional styling, but putting the Insight name on a not-so-efficient car (compared to competition like the Prius and the then-emerging field of plug-in vehicles. The efficiency of the new Insight has not yet been determined, but Honda says it will get "in excess of 50 mpg." And this one is much, much bigger than the original, showing just how far fuel economy tech has come in the last 20 years.
The engines in the three Insights are wildly different, too. The first-gen model used a 1.0-litrer, 3-cylinder engine, the second-gen had a 1.3-liter SOHC i-VTEC 4-cylinder engine, while the upcoming third-gen has a 1.5-liter Atkinson cycle engine.
The rear views of the three Insights shows the advances in aerodynamic styles. An Insight hybrid has always been defined by its low aerodynamic drag (lower is better):
- First-gen: 0.25 cd
- Second-gen: 0.28 cd
- New model: Unknown
With the new Insight prototype, the rear hatch slope is gone, replaced by a sedan back end that could have come from a new Accord.
And those rear wheel covers are long, long gone.
