Photo: S.Baldauf/SB-Medien
When the top few Google responses about a car come from Pinterest, you know there's something wrong. However, our spy photographers assure us that this is indeed a test mule for the all-new 2019 Honda Insight, spotted testing in Europe.
The bodywork of the prototype appears to belong to the pre-facelift Honda City, which is like a sedan version of the Fit/Jazz. You can tell that it's got the same bold side creases as its hatchback brother.
However, every panel is a miss-match. Like an alien wearing the skin of a human (think Men in Black), its appearance is uncanny. For example, not only is hood sitting a bit high, but it's also got a hump in the middle. And at the back, the bumper has an add-on that suggests the chassis of the car sticks out further than the bumper would allow.
That, together with the flared arches, suggests the Insight will be bigger than the City, which is 4,442mm long, 1,694mm wide and 1,477mm tall. But what bugs us is the sedan body. As a Prius rival, shouldn't the Insight be a sort of streamlined hatchback?
We remind you that Honda discontinued the Insight and CR-Z hybrids due to slow sales. For a while, it looked like the fuel-saving mantle was being picked up by the Clarity, available as a fuel-cell vehicle, an EV, and PHEV.
But this prototype isn't any of those - the single exhaust pipe gives it away. If you want a small hybrid sedan, the Honda City already offers that kind of powertrain.
So there's a possibility that we're dealing with a completely different car. The upmarket move made by the Civic might have left a gap for an affordable, somewhat basic sedan in Honda's European range, a sort of Skoda Rapid or Peugeot 301 rival.
Thankfully, the early stage of the prototype's development suggests Honda has more than a year to spill the beans on this project.
However, every panel is a miss-match. Like an alien wearing the skin of a human (think Men in Black), its appearance is uncanny. For example, not only is hood sitting a bit high, but it's also got a hump in the middle. And at the back, the bumper has an add-on that suggests the chassis of the car sticks out further than the bumper would allow.
That, together with the flared arches, suggests the Insight will be bigger than the City, which is 4,442mm long, 1,694mm wide and 1,477mm tall. But what bugs us is the sedan body. As a Prius rival, shouldn't the Insight be a sort of streamlined hatchback?
We remind you that Honda discontinued the Insight and CR-Z hybrids due to slow sales. For a while, it looked like the fuel-saving mantle was being picked up by the Clarity, available as a fuel-cell vehicle, an EV, and PHEV.
But this prototype isn't any of those - the single exhaust pipe gives it away. If you want a small hybrid sedan, the Honda City already offers that kind of powertrain.
So there's a possibility that we're dealing with a completely different car. The upmarket move made by the Civic might have left a gap for an affordable, somewhat basic sedan in Honda's European range, a sort of Skoda Rapid or Peugeot 301 rival.
Thankfully, the early stage of the prototype's development suggests Honda has more than a year to spill the beans on this project.
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