Is the Honda Insight going to be discontinued?

• The Honda Insight will end production in June, wrapping up its third generation.
• The Insight will be replaced by the similar but more recognizable Honda Civic Hybrid.
• Honda plans to expand its hybrid and battery-electric lineup with the ultimate goal of 100% zero-emissions sales in North America by 2040.

As one of the first hybrid vehicles, Honda launched its Insight in 1999, with awkward-looking skirts partially covering the rear wheels for better aerodynamics. While it didn’t share the same cultural success as Toyota’s Prius, it sold well enough to command three generations with a small break between the previous and most recent iteration.

Now comes some bad news for Insight fans: it’s dead. Honda is wrapping up the Insight’s production at its Indiana factory this June, leaving a hole in the company’s lineup.

Fortunately for hybrid fans, Honda plans to replace the Civic-based Insight with a more recognizable Civic Hybrid. Considering that Honda revived the Insight on the 10th-generation Civic platform, it makes sense that its production would wrap up with the 11th-generation Civic currently on dealer lots.

Late in its production run, the Insight certainly was a slow seller in the Honda portfolio. From 2018 to 2021, Honda moved a mere 70,000 Insights. Those numbers pale in comparison to Honda’s much more notable Civic nameplate. For context, Honda sold 264,000 Civics in the U.S. in 2021, making it America's most-popular small car, according to Wards Intelligence data.

Honda hasn’t mentioned when the Civic Hybrid will replace the outgoing Insight but promises it is coming. Stay tuned for details about the Civic Hybrid as its launch approaches.

Do you think the Honda Civic Hybrid will be more successful than the outgoing Insight? Let us know your thoughts below.

Wesley Wren Wesley Wren has spent his entire life around cars, whether it’s dressing up as his father’s 1954 Ford for Halloween as a child, repairing cars in college or collecting frustrating pieces of history—and most things in between.

The Honda Civic-based Insight hybrid will be discontinued and replaced by a... Civic Hybrid. An announcement from Honda on Thursday confirms the Insight will end production in June, and a new Civic Hybrid will join the lineup "in the future."

While the current Insight was pretty much just a 10th-generation Civic with a hybrid powertrain and some styling tweaks, Honda says it will now "focus on increasing hybrid volume with core models." In other words, expect a compact hybrid sedan that looks exactly like the regular Civic, similar to what Honda offers with the CR-V Hybrid and Accord Hybrid.

Speaking of which, new versions of those products are on the way. "Honda will introduce [an] all-new CR-V Hybrid this year," the company said, "followed by [an] Accord Hybrid."

Honda has lofty goals for its core hybrid models. The company expects the Accord and CR-V hybrids to "eventually make up 50% of the sales mix of each model." This is all part of the automaker's goal to have 40% of its North American sales to be battery electric or fuel-cell electric by 2030, increasing to 80% by 2035 and eventually 100% by 2040.

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2022 Honda Insight

April 14, 2022

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. 

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