Honda Insight Hybrid!

Totality

Totality

Totality

Soldato
Joined
5 Jul 2007
Posts
2,571
Location
NZ
Made this thread in GD by mistake, but now it feels at home!

By day I normally drive a 2008 Golf GT as my company car, but tonight Mathew I will be driving a new Honda Insight Hybrid!

If anyone has any questions about it or photos they want that they can't find online let me know. I only have it until tomorrow when I get the golf back as Honda have lent it to us for a day to "test out". It's covered in lovely flower decals and I went for a quick drive at lunch and can describe it as "slow", but I am to report back to work tomorrow on what the car is like on a long drive fuel economy, comfort wise, etc. I commute 80 miles a day so this will give it a proper test compared to just around town.

I'm not expecting much from it to be honest, but then again I'm not really a hybrid fan! I like my fast cars and bikes, but I'll give it a go and see if I can be converted....

Here's a link to Honda's site - http://www.honda.co.uk/cars/insight/
 
Hybrids typically are only any good when you're using the electric stuff a lot - ie around town.

For long-ish commutes, you'll probably find it's using it's old-skool engine more than the electric stuff, so economy won't be as good as the "OMG HYBRID!!" brigade would have you believe!
 
Confused said:
Hybrids typically are only any good when you're using the electric stuff a lot - ie around town.

For long-ish commutes, you'll probably find it's using it's old-skool engine more than the electric stuff, so economy won't be as good as the "OMG HYBRID!!" brigade would have you believe!
Click to expand...

That's what I expect too. A lot of my time is spent sitting in traffic however so it should be town speeds for about 10 miles of the journey. Will be interesting to see how it truly performs as I've never been converted to the hybrid way of thinking yet. I reckon I'll be loving the golf when I get it back!

The hybrid model I have is the top model they do so if that can't impress me all hope is lost for the hybrid brigade in my books.
 
Sat in one the other week at the Honda dealership, I know it's designed to be very cheap, but some of the plastics in there were horrible and nasty, I couldn't really see much benefit over a Jazz that was parked next to it, space inside was pretty similar, but the Jazz felt like a slightly nicer place to be, even the boot was similar in size and the few thousand quid saving would more than make up for the difference in fuel economy (which wasn't that much different iirc).

Look forward to seeing what you make of it to drive and real world economy etc though!
 
I'm told that some of the Prius cars in the US can now be plugged in, allowing an overnight charge and a range of around 50 miles before the petrol engine is needed again.
Can the Honda do that?
 
JonnyCoupe actually runs one of these, and by all accounts his fuel economy figures are very impressive.
 
As far as I understand the Honda system is setup different from the Toyota. The Honda electric motor assists the petrol engine giving greater ecomony, but it cannot operate in electric only mode, unlike the Toyota.
 
We should be thanking car manufacturers for doing the R&D on this and taking the first brave steps but I just can't help thinking.....meh.
 
bledd. said:
pics of the flowers mate? :)
Click to expand...

Lol the flowers are only there as it's a demonstrator model. On the normal version they're not there :D But the green flower that lights on the dashboard is always there when you push the green "Eco" button! Kinda like that "Turbo" button on the old PCs I suppose but the opposite way round as it turns in into super eco mode!
 
Hybrids are certainly not a white elephant and are a viable solution for reducing fuel economy of cars whilst still using internal combustion engines.

Getting more energy driving the wheels from the same amount of fuel. Fuel cells, electric cars, etc will requre massive changes to the road fuel supply infrastructure.
 
merlin said:
We should be thanking car manufacturers for doing the R&D on this and taking the first brave steps but I just can't help thinking.....meh.
Click to expand...

F1 teams are doing it now with the introduction of KERS :D

Its certainly a step in the right direction, the ideal world would be having no brakes and instead the regen motors captures all the energy from slowing down and reuses it. Rather than simply converting it to heat like disks and pads do.
 
brassd said:
As far as I understand the Honda system is setup different from the Toyota. The Honda electric motor assists the petrol engine giving greater ecomony, but it cannot operate in electric only mode, unlike the Toyota.
Click to expand...

The new Honda IMA (generation 6 now!) actually does pure EV, although the engine still turns which introduces pumping losses. Honda instead choose to close the valves off so the cylinders act as big airsprings so there are less losses than pumping air.

Its only an 8v engine though and with CVT setting revs nice and high for power its a pretty rough affair to make progress in it. Decent aero on the Insight 2 though and ECON mode seems to really work in terms of making joe public drive like hybrids work best. The Honda system is very simple and light but allows you to regain about 65% of the kinetic energy from braking where as usually you turn 100% into heat and brake dust.

Hybrid for everyone... if the exchange rate hadnt fell thorugh the floor these would have been available in the UK for around £12k!

The prius is a atkinson cycle engine, its needs the EV to get it going at low end rpm but this is the image of hybrids now :( not helped by the tragic driving dynamics it offers.

Ill be interested to what you think of the test drive. Seems the econ points score has the same effect as Xbox points and makes people really try for them and the 5 flowers :p
 
Totality said:
Now that's something I'd agree with! Fuel cell cars I can see being the saviour that people want, but hybrids to me are just a marketing gimmick as far as I'm conerned at the moment. Will find out for definite tonight!
Click to expand...

At least hybrids run on fuel and not a hugely inefficient energy carrier :p

Im am seeing the unit prices for current gen high output motors. We need the scale to get the EV running gear cheaper.

1 motor at $20k or 5000 at $5k?
 
bledd. said:
pics of the flowers mate? :)
Click to expand...

As it's you, I've gone and taken a photo! Here you go!

photo.jpg


Just driven back 40 miles and achieved 58 MPG. That's with eco mode on and keeping it at 68mph most of the way which was painful! I have to say that it's the most underpowered car I've ever driven and feels slower than a 1.1 which is weird. I wasn't going for speed, but eco-drive and achieved 58mpg with the air-con turned on. When I arrived home and turned the engine off, 4.5 flowers appeared on the dash indicating I achieved 4.5 out of 5 for driving efficiency so there wasn't that much more I could have squeezed out of her.

Around town and going in traffic I was above 60mpg but that was going down a continually slight decline so think mavity helped there!

Normal driving of 70mph plus on the motorway, etc would destroy the efficiency and I would probably get around 50mpg or even less. That's if it could even reach 80mph!

Have to say I'm not impressed as the golf obtained 47mpg this morning and I was in a rush to get to work shall we say. The golf costs the same brand new (£18K), is a LOT faster, has much nicer trim, more comfortable, better sound system and much better visibility out of the back of the car. I'm sticking with the golf. Shame really as some part of me wanted to like hybrids!

Compared to a regular petrol car, yes it's more economical fuel wise, but compared to diesel there's nothing in it. My mate obtained 55mpg in his 2.0 litre TDI golf on the way home. I suppose it's better for the environment than diesel though?
 
I guess it helps when you ignore the price difference of the fuels though.

TBH mine is no different between 65 and 75mph. You might be suprised what 70+ would get you, i would hope its still above 50 once you have the momentum. ECON mode will limit your power and dull the throttle response though hence struggling for 80. You have to be really delicate on the throttle to get the best results though, with the insight you should be able to get EV mode up to about 30 and in some overun conditions.

The insight other than the pretty lame powertrain is impressive in terms of packaging though, the boot space is well up there amongst its group piers. How did you find that classic Kamm back car blind spot?

Thing is when the Euro 6 stuff comes in for diesels i just have no idea how they are gonna do it without adding a lot of expensive kit onto the car.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom