Honda's All-New Honda Insight Hybrid: Fuel Economy Similar to Civic Hybrid

On Sale Spring 2009, Expected Price: Around $18,500
At the Paris Auto Show, Honda is showing an almost-production prototype of its new dedicated hybrid car, the 5-door hatchback Insight (V 2.0). The company is also working on a hybrid based on the CRZ and a Jazz/Fit hybrid, as well as a new version of the Civic Hybrid. "Honda is planning global sales of more than 500,000 units per year with its four hybrids [with 200,000 of those being Insights], said Takeo Fukui, president and chief executive officer of Honda."

We have a lot more details (engine, MPG, etc) and photos below.

Honda Insight Hybrid Design
At first when we saw the Insight spy shots, we thought it looked quite a bit like the Prius. But now that we can have a better look, the similarities are still obvious, but we think the new Insight can stand on its own and doesn't look half bad (some weird design choices here and there, but it could have been worse).

Honda Insight Fuel Economy? MPG?
That's what everybody's wondering about, of course. We don't have a solid EPA number, but here's what Honda said:

CO2 emissions and fuel economy are targeted to be at a similar level to the existing Civic Hybrid, giving drivers a flexible and highly practical lower environmental impact car.

EPA rating for the Civic Hybrid is 40 city, 45 highway (42 combined).

We can't be sure if that's going to be the number for the new Insight until the car is tested by the EPA, though. Lets hope Honda is understating it to lower expectations and actually surprise us with something better than the Civic Hybrid...