Lovert Mafukure
LAST week we looked at the Honda Insight. It was one of the first ever Hybrids to be mass produced. It had a quaky design which never became a favourite for many.
Low interest and low sales led to its discontinuation. Despite the low interest and low sales, Honda went ahead and designed a second-generation Honda insight and this time they chose to go with a less controversial design hoping to catch the hearts of many. They managed to do that but they failed to do many other things. In other words, they kind of lost the plot!
As we have established so far, a Hybrid system is basically a system where a car uses more than one means of propulsion. In this case, an engine plus an electric motor with huge batteries. The second-generation Honda insight came with a similar 1,3l engine but it was bigger with better styling. It looked suspiciously like a Honda Airwave, they are from the same era and I guess that explains it. The 1,3l engine is aided by a set of batteries and an electric motor to complete the hybrid system.
Since it’s a hybrid, the big battery packs definitely have to go somewhere and they are housed on the floor in the rear.
The only problem with that is the high headline in the back-seat which makes it very hard for tall people to sit comfortably.
The high back also makes it hard for the driver to see the back nicely. All that I guess is still a small price to pay for good fuel economy.
As I mentioned earlier, Honda managed to come up with a more mainstream design but they also failed to reduce the fuel consumption.
This model isn’t as great on fuel economy as the first but its not as bad as cars with petrol engines only. In a bid to get more customers, Honda had to make the Insight more appealing. It now came with 4 doors and seating capability went up to 5 people. This however, meant that this model had to weigh more and it’s quite heavy weighing about 1,2tonnes.
That weight has a negative impact on the fuel consumption and this second generation isn’t as light on fuel as the first generation.
As I mentioned last week, hybrid vehicles are environmentally friendly and depend less on fossil fuels. While full electric cars eliminate the need to fuel up a car, they need to be charged. Hybrids however, use regenerative braking to get their electricity and use that to charge the batteries for later use. Hybrid electric vehicles act as a bridge between traditional combustion engines and electric vehicles. While technologies are still being developed to extend the range that one can get out of one charge on an electric vehicle, the hybrid steps in with efforts to save the environment and your pocket too.
The price for a used second-generation Insight isn’t as high as the first. Like most Hybrids, the insight isn’t too expensive to run as it uses about 4,5l per 100km. Battery packs are however expensive to replace when they need to be replaced. In our third world country where hybrids come as Grey imports, one would have imported the battery packs when they die setting them back a few thousands of their greenback. These battery packs do not come cheap.
The second-generation Honda Insight was a direct competitor to the Toyota Prius. You have to understand that the Prius was making a lot of sales and was favoured better than the first-generation Insight which had a weird design.
The Prius looked more of a normal car than the Prius. People were not yet ready for space age type of designs.
With the second-generation Insight, Honda tried to correct their design but shot themselves in the foot. They created a more normal car but it was heavy. They had managed to keep the weight low on the first Insight but that also meant they do away with all niceness which had kept customers away. On the second generation, they brought some niceness at the expense of fuel economy.
According to Honda the batteries in the Insight can last up to 15years or 240 000km. If you buy the Insight second hand however, you won’t have anyone to cry to if it breaks down since they are way out of warranty. For cars that are less than 10 years old, however, there is still quite a bit of life from them considering you can purchase one online for just over a thousand. Till next time. . . Happy Motoring folks!
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