Raw Japan

Honda’s Insight takes on Prius

It took almost 10 years, but Honda may finally have a hybrid hit on its hands this time.

The five-seater Insight went on sale this month in Japan ahead of other markets and orders have already climbed to 15,000, triple the number Honda hoped to sell on average in a month here.

That’s already just 2,000 shy of the total sales for Honda’s first hybrid car, also called Insight, in its seven years on the market from late 1999.  (The two cars share little more than a name.)

First-month orders are always an anomaly in Japan, where the shelf life for “newness” is punishingly brief. But if the Insight’s response is anything like what the second-generation Prius did for Toyota, Honda is in for a big boost to its already-green image.

So what’s Honda doing differently this time?

In a word, it’s affordability. While past hybrid cars have carried a price premium of roughly $5,000 and upwards over a similar gasoline-engine car, the new Insight starts at just 1.89 million yen ($19,700) in Japan.