Remember that it's _Australian_ dollars below....-tmn
First Published: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 in Sydney Morning Herald
Fuel frugal coupe offers a new Insight into economy for $45,000
The world's most fuel efficient car is coming to Australia. As petrol
prices top $1 a litre across Sydney, Honda Australia confirmed
yesterday its Insight petrol-electric hybrid vehicle will be in local
showrooms by the middle of next year priced about $45,000.
The Honda Insight is the size of a Civic hatch and sips a third of the
fuel of a conventional passenger car. It could drive from Brisbane to
Sydney on one tank of petrol - and keep going to Canberra.
It is expected to be the only car eligible to wear a five-star fuel
economy label when Australia's new compulsory energy rating system for
cars is introduced from January 1.
The Insight, a two-door coupe, looks and drives just like a normal car
- but there is an eerie silence when it comes to a halt.
The car uses power from a combination of petrol and electric engines
to achieve its world-leading fuel consumption of three litres per 100
kilometres. The petrol engine switches off automatically when the car
is stationary and then switches on once the accelerator pedal is
pressed.
The battery pack boosts the power of the one-litre, three-cylinder
petrol engine (pictured) to get the car moving. The battery is
recharged when the car is coasting or when the brakes are applied.
The Insight is sold in Japan, America and the UK, where a wary public
has been slow to adopt the new technology. It will be the first
vehicle of its kind in Australia, effectively beating Toyota in an
unofficial race to have the first petrol-electric hybrid on sale
locally.
Toyota's Prius, a Corolla-sized four-door sedan, released in Japan in
1997 just months before Honda's Insight, was the world's first
mass-produced petrol-electric hybrid car.
The Prius outsells the Insight globally and is also sold in Britain
and the United States, but Toyota Australia says its efforts to sell
the car here have been thwarted by technicalities with Australia's
stringent vehicle regulations.
Honda Australia claims it is in the middle of that process and does
not expect any delays. It will have a car on display at the Sydney
Motor Show, which opens early next month.
Honda Japan claims it makes a loss building each Insight and says the
car should be 50 percent more expensive than the price it sells for,
but the company is absorbing the loss to learn more about the
technology which is destined to power Civics and other "conventional"
models of the future.