Recently we acquired some photos that are said to depict the all new 2019 Honda Insight Hybrid. Photographers assured us that the vehicle at hand is indeed the new Honda Insight and according to them these photos were taken in Europe where the vehicle has been tested.
When it comes to a body of the vehicle it resembles heavily a pre-facelift Honda City. That car is something like a sedan variation of the Honda Jazz/Fit. One can deduce that by looking at the bold side creases. Those same creases can be found on the Jazz/Fit.
On the other hand, there are many differences. It is clear that hood is sitting a bit high and it’s got a hump in the middle. At the rear side of the vehicle, the bumper has an add-on which can only mean that the chassis sticks out further than the bumper would originally allow. Combining that with the flared arches only suggests that the Insight will indeed be bigger than the City, the City is 4,442mm long, 1,694mm wide and 1,477mm tall.
We found one feature somewhat peculiar about this sedan. Considering that this will be a rival of Prius shouldn’t it be a kind of a streamlined hatchback? Let us remind you that the company halted the Insight and CR-Z hybrids due to poor sales and it really looked like these hybrids were going to be picked up by Clarity for a while. They would have shared the faith of being a fuel-cell vehicle, an EV, and PHEV.
However, this prototype doesn’t fit any of the aforementioned two types. Why? Because of the single exhaust pipe. Honda City already offers in itself a small hybrid sedan. That’s the powertrain it features and that’s the powertrain we already had.
Therefore we believe that this vehicle is something completely different. A move made by the Civic in the market left a slot for a budget-friendly basic sedan in Honda’s European range. Something like a Skoda Rapid or Peugeot 301 rival.
Fortunately, this is only the early stage of the prototype’s development and Honda has more than a year to work on this project before the announcement.
