Honda’s newest hybrid model will be an ode to it’s first, the Insight. This time though, it’ll be a full sedan with four doors and four seats. The concept form for this new model was revealed recently at the 2008 Paris Auto Show to rave reviews by the automotive press.

The Insight will take aim square at the center of Toyota’s Prius. Honda is dead-serious about it’s use of innovative technology to achieve extraordinary goals. Honda calls this the “Power of Dreams”, and it’s the slogan for the entire company.  It’s this kind of thinking that brings cars like the Insight into existense.

Still, with all this innovation being displayed, there was one announcement that caught everyone off guard at the cars Paris unveiling. The surprise came in the form of Honda President Takeo Fukui announcing that due to a drop in the cost of batteries and electric motors, the new Insight would actually sell for less than a Civic Hybrid but generate the same fuel-numbers. The Civic Hybrid currently gets an average of 40mpg in the city and about 45mpg on the highway.

“I want to bring it down to the range of 2 million yen ($18,864),” Fukui said in a recent video-conference with Tokyo reporters. That translates to around $19,000 when the production insight comes to the states. With the way fuel prices are going, Honda has the right idea in making sure it’s lineup can cope with the rising costs of transportation. This new Insight is proof that the boys from Tokyo are on top of it.

-Source: Automotive News

-Photos: Honda Motor Co.