Ford Builds 100,000th Hybrid; Honda Prices Insight Below Prius
By Michelle Krebs March 11, 2009KANSAS CITY, Missouri -- Ford produced its 100,000th hybrid vehicle Tuesday. The silver Escape
Hybrid rolled off the assembly line at the carmaker's Kansas City Assembly Plant.
At the same time, Honda announced that its 2010 Honda Insight will cost more than $2,000 less than the least expensive 2009 Toyota Prius.
Ford has built the most hybrids of any of the Big Three, but still trails Toyota and Honda. In 2008, Ford sold 19,524 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids. Toyota sold almost 159,000 Prius hybrids. Still, as Edmunds' Green Car Advisor reports, Escape hybrid sales bucked the industry's downward sales trend in February with a 55-percent sales increase.
Honda said Tuesday that its 2010 Honda Insight, on sale March 24, will cost about $2,200 less
than the Toyota Prius. Base prices for the Insight range from $19,800 for the base LX to $23,100 for the EX, Honda said.
The current 2009 Prius starts at $22,000 and rises to $27,765 for the Touring version. Toyota will introduce a new-generation 2010 Prius this year; no price has been revealed.
Edmunds Green Car Advisor reports that Honda has received a surge in orders. The Japanese automaker has received about 18,000 orders in Japan for the Insight since its February 6 debut. Honda, hoping to outsell the Prius, is targeting 5,000 Insight sales a month in Japan.
Photos by Manufacturers
1 - Ford's Kansas City plant celebrated the assembly of the automaker's 100,000th hybrid Tuesday -- a silver Ford Escape Hybrid.
2 - Honda hinted at the debut of the 2010 Honda Insight that it would be priced below the current Toyota Prius.
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