Why Doesn the New Insight Get Better MPG than the Civic Hybrid?
Why indeed. According to the EPA, the Civic Hybrid manages 40 mpg in the city and 45 mpg on the highway, for an EPA combined score of 42 mpg. The 2010 Honda Insight scores 40/43 mpg for a combined 41 mpg. I posed the question to Hideharu Takemoto, Assistant Chief Engineer for Honda, and one of the fathers of the original Insight and the IMA system. “The main reason is that we didn’t set the target of “label” fuel economy,” says Takemoto-san. Which means the Insight team’s primary goal was not merely a high mileage number or as he is fond of calling it — a label. “The main concept of this vehicle is ‘Next Era Transportation’ which is based on four key pillars: Clean and Green, Usable, Fun and Affordable. The highest priority during development was balancing of all four of these key pillars at a high level — not get one and lose the others,” he says. “For example, we didn’t apply [a] dish type alloy wheel. The decision was made because there have been [a] certain number of customers wh
