According to various reports, Honda Canada has decided to pull the plug on the Insight and Civic Hybrid. This has yet to be confirmed by Honda Canada, but I also have it on good authority that this is the case.
The two mild hybrids haven’t exactly been a hit around the world (except for in Japan), but sales are particularly bad here in Canada. Canadians love the regular Civic however as it has been the best selling car for years with over 31,000 units sold. Honda Canada claims they don’t keep track of which specific trim levels were sold so they can’t say for sure how many of those units were Civic hyrbids. That’s bullshit. If they don’t track it, how do they know Civic Hybrids aren’t selling? They just don’t want the public to know just how bad the Civic Hybrid is selling. Luckily since the Civic Hybrid is build only in Japan, and the rest of the gas models are built in Canada, we can easily find out for ourselves. Over 600 Civics sold here were built in Japan. Therefore, since the only Civic built in Japan is the hybrid, likely that those 600 Civics were hybrid models. That means the hybrid Civic represents only 2% of Civic sales!
Likewise, and admittedly I’ve known this for a while thanks to some inside info I got from a local Honda dealership, the Insight is going to get the axe as well. The Prius wannabe never caught on here despite strong sales in Japan. Although I’ve never driven the Insight, most reviews are not favourable. In fact, Jeremy Clarkson called it “biblically terrible” adding “It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.” God, I love Clarkson.
Anyway, good try Honda. Maybe you’ll have better luck selling the CR-Z here. Probably not though.
[Monvolant]
