Head-to-head hybrids: Honda Insight vs. Toyota Prius

In the style of the Pentagon — where generals prepare to fight the last war, rather than the next — Honda has launched a salvo at the Toyota Prius, only to discover the enemy had moved.

The car is the 2010 Honda Insight, a slope-nosed four-door hybrid hatchback that looks nearly identical to the Prius. Named after the first aero-tadpole Insight (1999-2006), the new car aims to whittle away at Prius sales by offering hybrid mileage (average 41 mpg) without the so-called hybrid premium (that is, the price difference between a comparable conventional car and a gas-electric hybrid).

The Insight will go on sale April 22 — Earth Day — and will be priced below the current Honda Civic hybrid ($23,650), the company promises.

Got that? Honda is offering a Prius-on-the-cheap that gets 41 mpg.

Alas, the Prius has just gotten massively better. This month at the Detroit Auto Show, Toyota showed off its redesigned 2010 Prius, with an average fuel economy that's increased to more than 50 mpg. That marquee number will let Prius keep its standing as the most fuel-efficient car sold in America.

The 2010 Prius is also bigger (0.6 inches longer), 1 second quicker to 60 mph (9.6 seconds), and chockablock with tech to set greenie tongues awag. Optional on the Prius is a roof-mounted solar array that generates enough watts to cool the cabin on hot days.

Price war

So what confronts us now is a charming little game of chicken. If Toyota sets the MSRP of the new Prius anywhere near its current base price — $22,000 — then Honda will be obliged to set the Insight's price lower, maybe much lower. After all, the car's market position, its entire rationale, rests on the price/mpg matrix. The 41-mpg Insight has to be substantially cheaper than the 50-mpg Prius.

Who will name the price first? Who will blink? Cue the Ennio Morricone music.

Honda execs will tell you they aren't really targeting the Prius, the world's best-selling hybrid since 1997. Heavens, no. The 2010 Insight merely seeks to exploit an opportunity in the market, where eco-conscious Gen Y'ers and budget-conscious Empty Nesters can't justify the expense of a hybrid car. The visual similarities between the Insight and Prius are purely the consequence of aerodynamics, plus safety and packaging considerations. The cars are products of the same algebraic modulus.

(I'd give the Insight the advantage in looks. The front-end styling on the Honda — borrowed from the Clarity and Accord — is proper and fitting. The nose of the Toyota seems cobbled together. That said, you would need a pretty finely calibrated ugly stick to discern which car is actually "prettier.")

And yet, the Insight — a futuristic lozenge of aero-cheating practicality — is unmistakably a hybrid. And that's significant. Hybridized versions of the Toyota Camry, Chevy Malibu, Nissan Altima and Honda Civic don't offer the same psychic rewards, because their differences are concealed under conventional sheet metal. The new Ford Fusion hybrid — a sensational car — offers limited pride-of-ownership rewards because: a) it looks like another run-of-the-million Ford sedan, and b) Ford isn't the most cherished brand among whale-huggers.

Coaxing it to 62 mpg

I spent a day driving the new Honda Insight, and it is almost exactly what you'd expect: impeccably constructed, well planned, and honeyed with high-tech surfaces and materials. Nothing feels cheap or compromised.

The car uses a version of Honda's Integrated Motor Assist technology, but unlike previous generations of IMA, the car will move at very low speed on all-electric power and will coast up to 30 mph on electric.

The nickel-metal hydride battery pack and power electronics unit has been shrunk to the size of a breadbox and stuffed under the cargo floor in back. Cargo space is a very generous 16 cubic feet when the rear seats are folded down.

Like the Honda Clarity and the Ford Fusion hybrid, the Insight instrument panel brims with readouts that coach and encourage efficient driving.

The car also has an ECON mode: Push the button and the computer controllers throw a big green blanket over the car's systems. The idle-stop kicks in sooner; the air conditioning relies more on recirculation. The throttle response, power and torque are dialed back.

On a short hyper-miling course, I was able to coax 62 mpg out of the Insight. Though a colleague at the same event got well over 70 mpg in a Prius — the outgoing Prius.

One big difference

Despite all the electronic nannying — which you can turn off or ignore, if you like — the Insight has one thing over the current Prius: The Insight is fun to drive. It has the directness and agility and tossable nature that most Hondas have. It's awake at the wheel. It's not quick or fast, but it's well-planted and willing. The Prius drives like a microwave oven.

So now the Prius — the very form and fashion of eco-consciousness — has a direct competitor. One car is cheaper off the lot, the other appears to be more fuel-efficient. One car is fun to drive, the other might or might not be. We'll see when the new Prius comes out this summer.

Who will win? Consumers.

dan.neil@latimes.com