Honda Insight Hybrid

Own a hybrid? Don't feel left out; heres a little corner just for you.
User avatar
retepsnikrep
Posts: 1387
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: North Yorkshire England
Contact:

Honda Insight Hybrid

Postby retepsnikrep » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:33 am

Nice to se a hybrid section on the site. As you all know I own a pure EV www.solarvan.co.uk, but my wife and I also own UK spec Honda Insight's!

Image
His :D

Image
Hers :D

Two of only about 75 UK spec cars in the country! There are about 270 altogether regd with DVLA, but most are imports.

The bible for Insights on the internet is www.insightcentral.net an international site with a very active forum, and a few UK members.

The car is quite different from the Prius, which is a great machine in it's own right. No Prius knocking from me :wink:

The Honda Insight is a sporty Aluminium, ultra light, aerodynamic 0.25cd, 1L 3 cylinder Vtec, 5 speed manual, 115mph, 0-60mph 10 second, two seater. It has a small 10kw motor sandwiched between the engine and gearbox, basically it forms the flywheel. The motor assists the internal combustion engine during acceleration and hill climbing, it never runs on the electric motor alone.

It has a 120cell D size 6.5ah Nimh battery pack, and uses regenerative braking to recover energy, and autostop at junctions to cut fuel consumption. It also has a lean burn feature which means amazing mpg can be achieved.

To see an excellent UK produced video about the Insight click here. 100mb divx about 15 minutes long!

http://rapidshare.com/files/4019747/InsightVideoV2.AVI

My car's lifetime mpg over 80,000 miles is 92mpg, my wife's on her short five mile commute is 88mpg over 50,000 miles.

Our recent holiday trip to the Hebrides, nearly 2000 miles touring over two weeks with luggage gave

Image

Over 100mpg is achievable on a decent run in good weather at 50mph, my personal best is 116mpg over 100miles. Being in tax band A <100g CO2/km the Insight is also tax free, and congestion charge exempt.

I love them and could not go back to normal :shock: mpg ever again. Want a go in one? PM me, and if you are every up in Yorkshire we will see what we can do.

Regards Peter

User avatar
qdos
Posts: 2089
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:26 pm
Location: Dorset
Contact:

Postby qdos » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:16 am

I've driven one and it was rather nice. It is of course only a 2 seater though so for some folk it will be too small.

I didn't realise how economic it was though that average mileage is increadilbe if I had known it got that sort of mpg I'd have been on the lookout to buy one a long long time ago!!!

I have to say to drive it was a bit disapointing as it was just like driving a regualr petrol car. That's no slight intended on the Insight at all I guess it could even be a compliment just I'd have liked something a bit more magical to make it feel a bit more special :)

User avatar
aminorjourney
Posts: 1084
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 5:24 am
Location: Bristol
Contact:

Postby aminorjourney » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:30 am

Excellent, Peter!

You know, you could always come to one of our events in the Insight if it's too far for the van ;)


If the D cell batteries are all that's used is there any way the battery pack can be upgraded to a higher capacity? I know the Insight uses a different drivetrain setup to the Prius so would a larger battery improve your MPG?

For anyone interested there's an Insight on ebay at the moment with a buy-it now of £6,500.

Nikki.
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

EVangelist and Media Relations Coordinator, www.ZeroCarbonWorld.org
Host, www.transportevolved.com

http://about.me/aminorjourney/bio

User avatar
qdos
Posts: 2089
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:26 pm
Location: Dorset
Contact:

Postby qdos » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:38 am

Doh we just bought a Ciroen C1

I'll keep an eye on these though as and when I need to change the Nissan. Bit expensive though at the moment for a second hand car to me but I'll definately be interested in one if I don't build something comparable first ;)

User avatar
retepsnikrep
Posts: 1387
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: North Yorkshire England
Contact:

Insight on E-Bay

Postby retepsnikrep » Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:45 am

aminorjourney wrote:Excellent, Peter!
For anyone interested there's an Insight on ebay at the moment with a buy-it now of £6,500.Nikki.


Nikki. Sadly the Insight on e-bay is a 2000 model and not tax exempt, Only cars first registered after 01/03/2001 when the new emissions bands came in are exempt from tax, when I mean exempt I mean in Band A which is £0.00. Cars pre above date cost about £110 I think a year :cry:

Here are some of my Insight tips/notes!

There are some important dates in relation to Insights in UK.

Pre 01/03/2001 cars are not tax exempt, and it costs £110 a year for those sadly.

Post 01/03/2001 cars are tax free, exempt from congestion charge, exempt from some london parking fees and some other things. Excellent for London!

Pre 2003 cars do not have the 8 year/80,000 mile IMA UK warranty unless they have an extended Hondacare Guarantee in force, and have been Honda serviced.

The Hondacare Guarantee costs about £250 a year.

2003 and onwards vehicles have an 8 year/80,000 mile IMA warranty.

The manual version of the Insight has a "lean burn" function, is more fun to drive, and does many more miles to gallon than the cvt. So buy a manual car.

Both cars have been very reliable. (Touch Wood!) It is important to run the Bridgestone 391 OEM LRR tyres only, pumped up to a minimum of 50psi :shock: for best economy.

Peter

MalcolmB
Posts: 423
Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:07 pm

Postby MalcolmB » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:33 pm

Nice car Peter. I'm definitely tempted, but the kids would have to go in the boot. Hold on a minute, that's not a bad idea...

I imagine it's quite complex to service. Has it been expensive?

What sort of motor does it use? 10 kW sounds pretty useful...

User avatar
retepsnikrep
Posts: 1387
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: North Yorkshire England
Contact:

Servicing

Postby retepsnikrep » Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:09 pm

Is it expensive? No more than any other car. There are no after market parts available as too few made, so everything is genuine Honda. :o Engine takes 2.5L of synthetic 0W-20 oil and filter every 9000 miles/yearly or so about £40.00. Honda's are almost always at the top of the reliability tables, neither has let us down (touch wood). :)

They don't rust, as apart from one or two suspension components they are made of aluminium! :shock: The brakes don't wear out, as once you have learnt to drive it properly you don't use them much! 8)

The motor is a DC PM 10kw brushless 3 phase. It is also used to start the car, so it spins up instantly when you start! :twisted:

144v Battery pack can fail, I changed the weak one on my car myself soon after buying it at a cost of £1000. I now have a spare to fiddle with so it suited me. Should now last 80-100,000 miles or more. I am very gentle with it most of the time. :lol:

There are very few garages who have seen one let alone serviced one! I do my own now as I have a pit and the skills reqd. A yearly service and MOT from the bills I have is about £250.

Peter

marktime
Posts: 179
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 11:36 am
Location: Littlehampton, West Sussex

Postby marktime » Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:12 pm

It's really good to get an insight into the Insight :) , I'd not seen much info about them in the past and did not appreciate how they knock spots off the Prius in the mpg stakes!

Older Prius also get caught in the pre March 2001 trap.

Mark
Soft as Graphite, Hard as Diamond, Black as Coal & clear as CO2, It's a Carbon thing!

User avatar
ChrisB
Posts: 4657
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:33 am
Location: Hampshire on the Southcoast
Contact:

Re: Servicing

Postby ChrisB » Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:39 am

retepsnikrep wrote:..........144v Battery pack can fail, I changed the weak one on my car myself soon after buying it at a cost of £1000. I now have a spare to fiddle with so it suited me. ............


Any chance you can take the top off and take a few pics ??

Would like to see if they really do use standard Dsize cells and how they arrange them.

ChrisB
I reject reality and substitute my own !!!!!!

User avatar
retepsnikrep
Posts: 1387
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: North Yorkshire England
Contact:

Insight Battery Pics

Postby retepsnikrep » Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:35 am

Some pics I took a while ago. 144v 120xD cells.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image


The individual cells are welded together into 6 cells sticks, they cannot be seperated! They are not normal e-bay type D cells! They are designed for discharge of 100A and charge of 50A during use. Interconnects have to be able to stand this.

Peter


Return to “Hybrid's Corner”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 22 guests