This first image of the U.S. version of Honda’s latest production hybrid shows how the Insight Concept, first shown at Paris in October 2008, will be transferred into an aerodynamically inspired road car. The new five-passenger, five-door Insight is powered by a lighter, more compact version of Honda’s IMA hybrid system and will go on sale in mid-2009.

Honda Australia’s Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Yasuhide Mizuno, is looking forward to the Insight arriving in Australia. “We are very excited about the all-new Insight. It will offer Australian motorists even more choice in affordable hybrid motoring. We hope it will be available here in the not-too-distant future.”

The Insight is expected to have annual global sales of 200,000 units per year and will utilise a new interactive, driver-focused fuel economy enhancement technology named the Ecological Drive Assist System. The new feedback system gives the driver real time information about their driving performance, to help them reduce their fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.