CTC Review: 2010 Honda Insight EX

[Coast]

5.2 L/100 km is good but not good enough to make me buy one over a Fit.  I use about 2 tanks a month and drive about 12,000km/ year.  An Insight would save me about $10 a month in gas or $120 per year over the Fit. 

Hardly enough to justify spending $9000 extra on the car.

[Alex_S]

yada yada yada yada yada.. This car is fugly  (and this from a Honda fan).  If I was in the market for a vehilcle, I might lean towards a diesel from VW personally..

Also, I hear that minining for lithium/nickel to make the batteries is a dirty dirty business.  Sort of takes some of the shine off its eco-friendly badge, no?

[dorin]

I went to check out cars with a friend last night and I was a) surprisingly disappointed with the new Fit compared to the old one (it's not as roomy and comfortable as the previous model - there are more protruding bits from the front console that hit my knees and the floor under the front seats rises abruptly making the rear seat much more uncomfortable) and b) I was surprisingly taken with the Insight (it's sleek, cool-looking, comfortable, and I love the split rear window, now if only it came with a manual transmission like the original).

[Leviathan]

Also, I hear that minining for lithium/nickel to make the batteries is a dirty dirty business.  Sort of takes some of the shine off its eco-friendly badge, no?

Not really, the steel & aluminum in the rest of the car doesn't exactly grow on trees either 

[tpl]

  JC is not at all happy with the Insight

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article6294116.ece

But he does rather like the idea of the Clarity.

[Demosthenes X]

I went to check out cars with a friend last night and I was a) surprisingly disappointed with the new Fit compared to the old one (it's not as roomy and comfortable as the previous model...

I was disappointed to learn recently that the NADM 2009 Fit does not have "Refresh Mode" like the last-gen, because the NA seats are wider and taller than the JDM seats, so they don't fold properly.  The JDM Fit still has Refresh mode, but I guess North Americans are too fat. 

Other than that, the new Fit is very, very comfy, though.

[vdk]

What's refresh mode? 

[Demosthenes X]

What's refresh mode? 

[msantos]

Hi all;

Its nice to see all the feedback on the 2010 Insight.

I could add a fair bit to it to, but for now I will just provide the following link as a very unsophisticated look at what this car do, at least from a fuel economy perspective:

Canadian 2010 Honda Insight EX - (In depth review)


Correction: Regarding electric-only propulsion:

Like the Honda Civic Hybrid II, this car will enter electric only propulsion at any speed above 20km/h, once it reaches stage S4 in the warm-up process (S3 with ECON button on).  The electric-only range is then determined by your foot, SoC and road grade.  Doing 1-2 km in electric only is quite easy once we hone in on the foot skill.

Cheers;

MSantos

[danboo]

i read a recent article from a study done by several utilities that a plug in Prius would take less energy / cost less to charge than your typical new LCDTV.

So for those that talk about, how we're going to have the energy to charge "all these electric cars"   is unfounded.

[Cortina]

Like the Honda Civic Hybrid II, this car will enter electric only propulsion at any speed above 20km/h, once it reaches stage S4 in the warm-up process (S3 with ECON button on).  The electric-only range is then determined by your foot, SoC and road grade.  Doing 1-2 km in electric only is quite easy once we hone in on the foot skill.

I Wish Wing still had the car to try that out.

[msantos]

I agree, I wish he had a chance to test it again. 

However... I only issued the correction for the sake of accuracy and not to promote the use of electric only operation. 
In reality, the worse thing a new hybrid owner can do is try to run on electric-only and many mistakenly think that doing so it is the key to great fuel economy.  Because many in the press have very little experience and knowledge in current hybrid tech they often make this mistake as well.

Cheers;

MSantos

[vdk]

What's refresh mode? 

Cool.

[wing]

There is no correction to be made, I said that you cannot drive the vehicle without the engine running.  I never said you cannot drive on electric only. 

Yes you can drive on a electricity only, but it is nearly impossible where I drive as it is hilly.

[msantos]

Agreed.  It is just the terminology.

The "engine running" can appear misleading to some as it often implies the engine is using some fuel or imposing a significant drag.

As you know, the IMA Gen IV and V cylinders are deactivated which means that a significant portion of the engine is actually offline and unable to provide propulsion, technically not running as in "normal duty"... but just spinning the camshaft, as frictionless as possible so as to not induce too much drag on the in-line electric motor. 

When you power up the car the engine "runs" as any other traditional car does.  When you Glide or EV-Glide the engine just "free" spins but does not "run".

The correction (if any) applied to the "above 40km" threshold.

With practice we "can" use EV-assist right after a hill crest.  It is a viable technique if the pack's SOC is full from a previous descents.

Cheers;

MSantos

[G35X]

“ …cylinders are deactivated which means that a significant portion of the engine is actually offline and unable to provide propulsion… “ – msantos

To make it a little bit easier to visualize the engine function, note that even in the EV mode, the ICE is free-running at the same speed as the E motor, since the E motor is mounted concentrically on the ICE output shaft in the same way as the flywheel of conventional ICE. This is the simplicity and beauty of the Honda design. When free-running all the valves are closed so that pistons bounce up and down with the air inside functioning as spring, making mechanical load small. (If any valve is open, pumping loss will cause drag.)  Deactivating all the valves is done by Honda’s i-VTEC mechanism.  In this case it has two modes; deactivation and mid-to-high rev cam profile.  Although this design requires transmission, CVT or otherwise, it is simple and elegant nonetheless (high torque nature of E motor complementing low torque of ICE at lower RPM). 

This system still has a room for extending EV mode run further by using higher capacity battery in the future.  I think this is the reason why Honda and GS Yuasa set up a joint venture for R&D and production of Li-ion cells for automotive use.

Subaru’s H-4 engine is also suitable for this concentric ICE/E motor design since its north-south length is shorter and mounting a pancake E motor in the place of flywheel is easy.  Although Subaru is a Toyota company I think it is possible that we will see Subaru PHEV with Honda-like design.