Insight preview evening Bernard Bradley and JK
Thank you for coming and welcome to this exclusive preview of the new Honda Insight.
Current situation - Bernard
•Everyone’s aware of the tough economic conditions we’re currently operating under. It’s fair to say that the car industry is facing a very challenging period ahead. Buying a car is often the second biggest purchase anyone makes
•Customers needs and demands are changing as the purse strings tighten and households look to save money where they can, and seek only wise investments
•Consumers are nervous about fuel costs – although petrol prices are low at the moment, we’ve seen them go very high, and the public is aware that could happen again
•What customers want more than ever is well-equipped cars at competitive prices, with low running costs and low emissions, that have a strong resale value
•If you were going to design a car today, and sell it tomorrow, you’d make sure it was clean, fuel efficient and affordable. And that’s exactly what Honda is offering with the new Insight
•It’s the right car, at the right time – and we think it’s going to be a big hit with car buyers - -and another step towards hybrid cars becoming mainstream
Heritage - John
•But Honda has been in the right place at the right time before – back in the 1970s, at the time of the oil crisis, Honda developed the CVCC engine – a low emission petrol engine for the Civic, which met strict US exhaust emissions regulations. Not only was this engine revolutionary, but its introduction spurred the entire car industry on to developing car engines with low emissions. In fact, Honda didn’t keep the secrets of its success to itself – it sold the idea to other carmakers so the cleaner technology could become more widespread.
•However, it’s no coincidence that Honda was in the right place at the right time. We’ve been developing cleaner engines and more efficient ways of using fuel for more than 40 years.
•We haven’t just started thinking about the environment because of customer demand – it’s always been at the forefront of our research and development – if you look at the walls around you, you’ll see a display that tells the story of Honda’s clean technology
•We’ve only ever built cleaner four-stroke marine engines, have brought to market the world’s first production fuel cell vehicle with zero emissions, produce our own highly-efficient solar panels, sell cogeneration units that use natural gas to provide heat and electricity etc. And by 2010, our car production facility in Swindon will produce zero waste.
•The Insight is the culmination of 20 years of hybrid development. It’s because we’ve been building petrol-electric production cars for a decade that we’re able to bring to market a car with the refinement and appeal of this low emission family car.
Philosophy – Bernard
•Why has Honda taken this approach?
•Well, a key part of Honda’s global philosophy is to be “a company that society wants to exist”. And while that may at first sound like another piece of marketing claptrap, it is actually a mantra that is followed the world over, starting with our R&D centres.
•This philosophy helps explain why we are marketing a hybrid car that will appeal to a wider audience; it’s part of Honda’s efforts to have a positive impact on society.
•We could have chosen to place this cleaner technology in high-end cars; showpiece environmental machines to sell at a premium rate to a low number of customers.
•But the market needs cleaner cars at lower prices, not higher prices
•Therefore, our approach was to bring low emission hybrid technology within the reach of more people by reducing the costs
Product – John
•So what about the car then. What exactly will it offer consumers?
•It’s a 5-door, 5-seat hatchback with Honda’s petrol-electric hybrid technology – for those that don’t know, this means that an electric motor helps the petrol engine to power the car, which means that fuel economy is improved, and exhaust emissions are low.
•The hybrid technology in the Insight is an evolution of the system used in our current Civic Hybrid saloon, and emissions and economy will be at least on a par with that model.
•The Insight will also offer a unique ‘driver coaching’ system, which is rather snappily titled Eco-Assist. This new technology guides drivers towards achieving better fuel economy in real world conditions
•We know that individual driving style can have a major effect on fuel consumption – and everyone has a different style: some drivers are easy on the pedals, others drive in an aggressive manner. We also appreciate that we can’t expect everyone to know how to drive in the best, or most efficient way. However, what we can do is build the a car that uses fuel efficiently and then encourage drivers to adopt ‘greener’ driving styles
•The Insight does just that - we like to think of it as meeting the driver half way: we’re not expecting them to do all the work
•There’s a guidance function, which is a display behind the speedo that glows blue when a lot of fuel is being used, and then green when the car is driven more efficiently – so drivers can change their driving style during a drive
•The Insight also features a reward system. During each drive, small tree graphics are displayed on the dashboard to show the driver’s progress. The better you drive, the more branches the tree gets. ‘Perfect’ scores are rewarded with a flower.
•Once a journey is over, and the ignition is turned off, the Insight rates the driver on their performance. If the driver’s lifetime score has improved since the last journey, they are awarded with a trophy. If they’ve ignored the Driver Coaching, fuel consumption has gone up and the lifetime score decreases, the plant withers and slowly dies
•The aim is to engage drivers in this ‘game’ – so they learn more about efficient driving and how to save fuel – and therefore, money
•If you’d like to experience this technology, or indeed, just get behind the wheel of the Insight for a spin, then please speak to one of my colleagues who will more than happy to reserve a car for you for a few days.
Pricing – Bernard
•By now, most of you will be probably asking yourselves: ‘So what’s the price?’
•Unfortunately, we are not in a position to give you the exact price today – that will be announced following the car’s unveiling at Detroit in January.
•However, what we can say is that while other ‘low emission’ cars come with a premium attached – a kind of penalty price for going green – because of Honda’s experience, heritage and understanding of cleaner technology, we will bring the Insight to market at a price that is less than any previous Honda hybrid car.
•And as well as the lower purchase price, the Insight will come with all the associated financial benefits of hybrid ownership, including lower rates of VED, congestion charge exemption and great savings for companies and their fleet drivers.
Sales – John
•Our confidence is such, that – across the globe – we’re expecting to sell around 200,000 Insights per year. To put that in context, we’ve only sold 270,000 hybrid cars over the past decade. It’s a significant step forward.
•And the Insight is just the start. Over the next few years Honda will build a family of hybrids to appeal to a wider variety of drivers
•Soon to come is a hybrid sports coupe, based on the CR-Z concept, and following that will a hybrid version of our family supermini, the Jazz
•Once the hybrid line-up is complete, Honda will sell over 500,000 hybrids globally per year
Unveiling – Bernard
•Clearly, the Insight is an important part of that plan, and a very important car launch for Honda. And it’s particularly important that the car is a success in Europe. It’s why the car is a 5-door hatchback, rather than the 4-door saloon body shape favoured by North America.
•And the significance of the car to Honda’s biggest market in Europe – the UK – is the reason we’re here today, a whole month before the car’s world premiere at the Detroit Motor Show, to unveil the production car to you, which goes on sale in the UK in April.
•So without further ado, may I present Honda’s new family hybrid car: the Insight.
Source Honda UK
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