Honda will discontinue production of the Insight hybrid sedan in June, and begin ramping up hybrid variants of the 2023 CR-V compact crossover and 2023 Accord mid-size sedan this year, the automaker announced Thursday. The big news is the announcement of a Civic Hybrid sometime "in the future."
“Making the volume leader of our core models hybrid-electric will dramatically boost electrified sales in the Honda lineup, a strategy that will be augmented by the arrival of a Civic Hybrid in the future,” Mamadou Diallo, vice president of Auto Sales at American Honda Motor, said in a statement.
Relaunched in 2018 with a more streamlined sedan body, the third-generation Insight had modest but steady sales of about 18,000 units a year. Sales flagged in the first quarter of 2022 amid a rising tide of plug-in hybrid and electric models. Still, it was one of the most efficient models on the market without a plug.
The 2022 Honda Insight has an EPA rating of 55 mpg city, 49 highway, and 52 combined. The 2022 Toyota Prius gets up to 56 mpg combined, and the 2022 Hyundai Ioniq rates up to 58 mpg combined; both of those models are offered in plug-in hybrid variants that are even more efficient.
Honda discontinued the Clarity plug-in hybrid last year.
The CR-V Hybrid and Accord Hybrid contributed to surging electrified vehicle sales in 2021, according to Honda, and the redesigned 2023 CR-V expected later this year should further that trend. The Civic was just redesigned for 2022 with superlative fuel economy for a gas car, getting up to 31 mpg city, 40 highway, and 35 combined (the hatchback gets 30/38/33) when equipped with a CVT.
Honda has been producing efficient hybrid models for two decades now, but the company has been late to embrace full electrification. Last year, Honda announced its first battery electric vehicle for sale in the U.S., the 2024 Prologue SUV that will lead the charge of 30 EV models planned by 2030. By that time, Honda forecasts that 40% of its sales in North America will come from battery electric and fuel-cell electric vehicles.
Earlier this month, Honda and GM committed to a more sustained partnership to sell "millions" of affordable electric crossovers by 2027, with Honda responsible for the mass production of solid-state batteries, which have a higher energy density and smaller packaging but still need development for use in cars.
For now, with Insight fading, expect to see more news on the Civic Hybrid within the year, though Honda wouldn't confirm the exact timing.
