"While the Insight’s interior and exterior styling is unique it’s the hybrid’s powertrain that really defines the vehicle. Power comes from Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist setup that now in it’s fifth generation combines a 1.3 litre i-VTEC four-cylinder petrol engine with a compact electric motor. Total output is 72kW with 167Nm of torque sent to the front wheels through a conventional CVT transmission. It’s a different set-up to Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive in that the electric motor can only help the combustion engine and not power the car on its own. Power is returned to the nickel metal hydride battery through a regenerative braking function on the electric motor. This helps slow the Insight and means that less load is put on the conventional brakes, explaining the old-fashioned drum brakes fitted to the Insight’s rear wheels. The bottom line with this modern set up is a quoted fuel economy figure of 4.6l/100km on the combined cycle and emissions of 106g/km. While we couldn’t quite achieve this economy number, our testing used around 5.5l/100km of petrol. But even with more spirited driving the Insight shouldn’t get too far above 6.0l/100km."
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