News on hybrid vehicles, fuel cell cars, and the future of automobiles

FULL TOYOTA PRIUS VS. HONDA INSIGHT @ INSIDELINE.COM:

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=144926

At the launch of the 2010 Toyota Prius, Bob Carter, group vice president and general manager for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., tells us, “We’ll face two challenges when the Prius goes on sale: the economy and the 2010 Honda Insight.

“The good news for consumers is that the market has plenty of room for both the Prius and Insight in their respective segments,” Carter adds. “Based on our 2010 projections, the Prius can achieve a theoretical 7 percent share of the industry’s largest segment — midsize sedans. In the second-ranked compact class, the Insight could achieve a 5 percent market share.”

So it’ll be a nice, peaceful coexistence for these two hybrid cars that just happen to look almost exactly like each other. Don’t believe that? Neither do we.

As the U.S. economy continues its topsy-turvy performance, nobody’s market share is safe. So it actually matters which hybrid car is better — the 2010 Honda Insight, which went on sale March 24, or the 2010 Toyota Prius, which hits dealers in late May.

The Insight has already proven itself against the 2009 Prius. But now that the 2010 Toyota Prius has appeared with its bigger engine, all-new chassis and 50-mpg EPA-combined fuel economy rating, it is a much tougher hybrid cookie (bursting with high-fiber organic oats and fair-trade chocolate chips!).

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