In Japan, Insight Sales Far Outpace Honda’s Expectations
Seems that Honda may have vastly underestimated the appeal of their new hybrid — twice as many Honda Insights were ordered by the time the car had been on sale for ten days than Honda expected to sell in its first two months on the Japanese market.
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Reportedly, orders for the Insight have topped 10,000 units, with 5,000 of those orders coming before the car even went on sale. Honda had set a monthly sales goal of 5,000 units.
The Insight is currently the cheapest hybrid on the market in Japan, starting at roughly USD $21,000. In fact, some have argued that this is a major part of the Insight’s popularity — especially vis a vis competition with the Toyota Prius.
While Honda has stated they want the Insight to have a starting price below $20,000 when it goes on sale in the US this April, as the worldwide economy continues to implode this price point is being seen as harder and harder to meet.
Image Credit: Honda
Sources: Green Car Congress and Detroit News (via AutoblogGreen)
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February 18th, 2009 at 2:30 am
$20,000 that a good price for hybrid.