Hello all. I visited the Detroit auto show yesterday, and I thought the community here would appreciate some close-ups of the "prototype" 3rd gen Insight that Honda had on display. There was no sign or display with information, no specs or figures were given, and the interior was difficult to make out behind locked doors and tinted glass. Despite all that, the Insight is on the elevated turntable at the center of Honda's display, near all three versions of the Clarity. I am no great photographer despite my phone's impressive camera, but I think the shots I took give a fairly good impression of some of the vehicle's details.
Attendees are allowed up on the turntable to look at the car and interact with another part of Honda's 'Power of Dreams' exhibit.
An admittedly rough shot of the front of the car. The yellowish LED running lights were an interesting design choice, I rather like them compared to the usual harsh blue-white LEDs. The tail lights have the same smoked-brown tone as the heads.
The rear of the vehicle.
Honda has this labeled as a prototype, which likely indicates it is much nearer to the exact production version than a concept but may still have significant differences when it hits production. The Clarity was displayed at the auto show in much the same way prior to its release, though it didn't get center stage.
The ride height leaves room for improvement, but this could change somewhat for the production car, and clearance here is of course dependent on tire size.
You can see here the passenger's sideview mirror has a camera molded into the housing.
Here's a close-up of same. My best guess is it's a blind-spot camera, but I'm not sure why they felt the need for such a large extrusion from the mirror to house it. It's rather unsightly in my opinion, and the driver's side mirror lacks the camera and is shaped differently.
Mirrors are sizeable, but angle in towards the car.
Much cleaner looking without the camera.
The wheels look sharp, and appear to be fairly aerodynamic.
The prototype was fitted with Continental SportContact 6 tires, in size 225/40ZR19 XL. This is an interesting choice, being that those are decidedly performance-oriented tires (see them on Continental's website
here). However, this may have just been because they looked better for the show floor.
There are three openings on the front grill, the lower main one is shown here. Only the center portion allows air in, and you can see the upper grill below the badge is solid as well; the opening only spans the upper three inches or so.
The third and smallest opening is underneath the driver's side foglight, and appears to be for an oil or transmission cooler.
There is a vent in the left-front wheel well to accommodate airflow through the cooler.
The same grill on the passenger's side is simply for decoration.
The headlights appear to be LED, and look quite good.
Looks like a satellite antenna, for XM radio or navigation. I wonder if they couldn't have made it more compact.
The wipers are recessed fairly well below the hood, out of the flow of air.
I was curious about the contours of the headlight housings. Are these angular protrusions simply for style, or do they provide some beneficial airflow characteristic? I'm thinking the latter, but I'd love to hear others' thoughts.
The rear underbody has a good-sized panel, and the shape of the muffler itself lines up well with it. The exhaust is clearly intended to be discrete, with the angled tip and recessed placement typical of hybrids. Seems to be a smaller diameter, but not astonishingly so, perhaps just under two inches.
I attended with my dad, and of course he snapped a picture of me drooling over the Insight.
I'm excited to see the numbers when this thing goes on sale! While they weren't showing any of it, the prototype did appear to have a full drivetrain and interior, and seemed a lot like a production car.
Other efficient vehicles I was interested in at this year's show included the Kia Niro plug-in hybrid, which had a fairly nice interior and boasts best-in-class fuel efficiency for the 2018 model year (excluding EVs), the Chevy Cruze diesel (the manual trans is rated at an impressive 30/37/52 MPG US), and the Karma Revero (pictured below, based on the defunct Fisker Karma).
It was a good show overall, though I wasn't able to stay as long as I would have liked, and Tesla once again did not make an appearance as they are still unable to sell to Michigan customers.
If you'd like to see the full-resolution photos, I've compiled them in an album
here.