Honda Malaysia has launched the new B-segment Honda Insight at Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show 2010 (KLIMS) with price tag of RM98,000 OTR including insurance.

After the announcement of full tax exemption for hybrid cars in Malaysia, we heard price drop in Toyota Prius RM35K first and then revised price of Honda Civic Hybrid RM109K. According to Honda Malaysia's official announcement Honda Insight will be the cheapest hybrid car for 2011 and it also promises for high fuel-efficiency, stylish looking and fun to drive.

To make New Honda Insight fuel efficient, it is powered by Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) System. IMA system is a smart concept that stores energy from vehicle breaking and deceleration and supplies this stored kinetic energy in acceleration to achieve fuel economy of 41mpg. It consists of a 65-kilowatt (88PS) 1.3liter SOHC i-VTEC engine, a Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) battery packed 10-kilowatt (14PS) brushless electric motor mated with continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) and a newly improved Intelligent Power Unit (IPU) that’s 19% smaller and 28% lighter than previous version.

Features of Honda Insight in 2011

• Airbags at front, front-side and side-curtain
• Manual driver's seat height adjustment
• VSA anti-lock braking system
• Power windows
• Ecological Drive Assist System (Eco Assist)
• Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT)
• Tilt-and-telescope steering column
• Automatic climate control
• A driver-activated ECON mode for Effective Control
• Innovative speedometer display

The eye-catching feature of this car is an innovative speedometer display. This display changes background colours (green is good, deep blue means you’re crazy) according to car’s speed and also display fuel efficiency according to speed so user can achieve maximum fuel efficiency by speed.

Alloy wheels, an audio system with six speakers, steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters and heated side mirrors with integrated turn signals extra features that are available in the well equipped Insight EX specifications. However Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System 3 with voice recognition is also available in exclusive Insight EX model that provides routing and guidance to individual addresses.

A 10.6 gallon fuel tank of new Insight 2011 will allows you to drive more than 400 miles maximum. This Insight model has also capability of operating exclusively on electric power in certain low- to mid-speed at critical conditions (in absent of fuel).

New Honda Insight Price list in various cities of Malaysia (in RM)

• Peninsular Malaysia – RM 98,000.00
• Kota Kinabalu – RM 99,000.00
• Kuching – RM 99,000.00
• Labuan – RM 90,000.00
• Langkawi – RM 90,000.00
• Miri & Sibu – RM 99,000.00

Colour variant for Insight 2011: New Honda Insight comes in four colour variants: (I) Alabaster Silver Metallic, (II) Premium White Pearl, (III) Dyno Blue Pearl II (IV) Crystal Black Pearl.

New Honda Insight has received 6-star JNCAP safety rating for driver and 5-star JNCAP safety rating for passenger in term of safety of car. To boost sales of the gasoline- electric model, Honda cuts the base price of its Insight hybrid hatchback in the Malaysia than previous models. Company is also planning to reduce the battery's price for replacement and other auto parts up to 40%.  Honda Malaysia is ready to give the warranty for the battery to 5 years or 140,000km (depending on which comes first) as compared to the usual 3 year warranty.

Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf are also upcoming models with improvement in 2011 so it will be not so easy task to grasp the public attention in Honda Insight for Honda.

Image Courtesy: Fastmotoring.com

You Might Also Like :

• Honda Brio car to be launched in 2011
• New Honda Jazz Facelift 2011 car in India soon
• Honda : Cash For Clunkers Programm Announced
• Honda to Launch Next-Gen Civic Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles by 2012
• Honda Amaze: Specs, Price & release date for New Honda Diesel Sedan In India
• Honda 2cv (Brio) in India soon with Price of 3 lakh