Honda Executive Denies Insight Is Prius Lookalike

A Honda design executive denied on Thursday the often made allegation that his company's Insight was a copycat of Toyota's Prius, the world's best-selling hybrid car.

Visitors look at Toyota Motor Corp's hybrid car "Prius" displayed at the company's headquarters in...

Visitors look at Toyota Motor Corp's hybrid car "Prius" displayed at the company's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009. Toyota reported a smaller-than-expected 77.8 billion yen (US$819 million) quarterly loss and expects less red ink for the full year even as the world's top automaker battles plunging sales and a strong yen. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

(AP)

"We don't think it looks like the Prius at all," said Nobuki Ebisawa, managing director at Honda R&D Co., Honda Motor Co.'s research unit. "There may be some similarities in the roof line, but it is clearly different."

Ebisawa's remarks were in response to the observation frequently made in the Japanese and overseas media that Honda's new Insight gas-electric hybrid bears a resemblance to Japanese rival Toyota's remodeled Prius.

Both went on sale at about the same time earlier this year. They are both selling well, especially the Prius in Japan, where it has been the top-selling model for three straight months — the first time a hybrid has taken that spot.

Healthy hybrid sales have been a bright spot in the dismal auto industry, slammed by the global financial crisis. Government cash-for-clunkers incentives have helped lift their sales in Japan and abroad.

Ebisawa acknowledged considerations for maximizing aerodynamics and placing the hybrid system of electric motor and gas engine may make for similar styling in hybrids.

But he said the design approach at Japan's No. 2 automaker has roots in the origins of his company in 1960, which he called "design DNA."

Tokyo-based Honda has always tried to balance the desire for a dynamic look with a vehicle's uses, said Ebisawa, arguing there was continuity in Honda designs, including the Insight.

The same way of thinking and framework for design can be seen in Honda's Clarity fuel-cell vehicle, now available in limited numbers through leasing, as well as more common gas-engine models like the Civic and Odyssey, Ebisawa said, showing a clay model of the Insight to drive home his points.

Any similarities between the Prius and Insight are coincidence, he said at the Honda design facility in this Tokyo suburb.