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Honda Insight Meets Campaign's Fuel Economy Standard

The Honda Insight - the first electric-gasoline (or hybrid) available in the United States - introduced American car buyers to an innovative new vehicle that takes a significant step towards cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. Using an innovative lightweight and aerodynamic body, coupled with an efficient hybrid-electric engine, the Insight gets 61 mpg city and 70 mpg highway. This fuel efficiency is 85% higher than a typical subcompact, which well exceeds the Clean Car Standard of 50% improvement over the class average.

Compared to a typical subcompact, the Insight will reduce global warming carbon dioxide emissions by 17 tons and gasoline consumption by 1700 gallons, throughout its useful life and when compared to a typical subcompact.

The Clean Car Campaign praises the Insight and its innovative hybrid design that achieves significantly improved fuel economy. The Insight falls short, however, of the Campaign's vehicle emissions standard--certified to the California "ULEV" (ultra low emission vehicle) standard rather than the more stringent "SULEV" (super ultra low emissions vehicle) standard. Meeting ULEV is nonetheless up to 82% cleaner than other typical vehicles available today. Honda has not yet provided the Campaign with information to gauge the cleanliness of their manufacturing practices, another important factor of the Clean Car Standard.