Packaging Honda’s all-new Insight

November 1, 2018

Noriyuki Sato: Developing hybrids devoid of “strange feelings.”

Honda’s Noriyuki Sato knows hybrids — and how to optimize their packaging. Before joining the 2019 Insight program as chief engineer, performance, Sato-san spent 14 years working on the Accord Hybrid program. A veteran test engineer, he was serving in that role when the first-generation (1999-2005) Insight was showing the world the potential of the modern electrified automobile.

Honda spent 2006 to 2018 evolving Insight through five-door hatchback and four-door sedan models that never came close to challenging the Toyota Prius’ hybrid dominance. For the all-new 2019 model, the Insight development team settled on a four-door version of the steel-intensive, global compact platform that is shared by Civic, with refined styling that is easier on the eyes than perhaps any other car in the Honda range.

The all-new Insight has Honda’s next-gen Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure which incorporates extensive use of high-tensile-strength steel in 340-, 440-, 590-, 780-, 980-, and 1500-MPa grades. The hood is in aluminum.

Packaging the new Insight’s energy sources — a lithium-ion battery pack made up of 60 cells supplied by Panasonic, and 10.6-gal (40-L) gasoline fuel tank — under the rear seats enabled Sato’s team to expand cargo capacity from the Civic sedan’s 14.7 ft3 to 15.1 ft3. The 12V battery (an AGM type) used for hotel loads is tucked under the center console. This clever package-engineering enabled folding rear seats for greater utility and expanded rear-seat legroom that’s greater than that of the Hyundai Ioniq and Prius C, the car’s two main hybrid bogies.

Sato spoke through a translator with Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Brooke about what he calls “the Smart, Green Sedan” development.

The new Insight is a triumph of efficient packaging. Was this the greatest challenge for your team in developing the vehicle?

It was one of them, but maybe not the greatest. There are various challenges in every vehicle development. For the Insight, maybe not a challenge but one of the things we tried to focus on carefully was achieving a ‘balance’ for the car, as a sedan. By that I mean trying to balance the styling, the driving dynamics and ride quality, the fuel economy — and the packaging. Getting a good balance for all those factors was really the challenge. This also included working with the design stylists to give the car a larger, cooler look overall.

Talk about the decision to move the energy sources under the back seat.

For that we needed two things: technology that made the battery smaller, to further miniaturize it, and we needed technology that allowed us to package it efficiently.

One of the sacrifices that had to be made in a lot of hybrids until now is the trunk space, which affects utility. That’s where the battery had to go in the past and is something we wanted to improve. Now, with the third generation of our hybrid system we were able to make the battery smaller and to fit it under that second-row seat.

Insight’s trunk space is impressive — are you best-in-class in that area?

Yes, I believe we are best in class. Now, let me ask you: What did you not like about the car?

Accelerating under hard throttle there is still that “slipping-clutch” feel and sound of a CVT that I’ve never liked in hybrids.

Yes, we also think some of the issues to work on moving forward are the engine sound and also that ‘gap’ in the acceleration. We really want to develop hybrids that aren’t just for people who like hybrids, vehicles that regular customers can enjoy without any strange feelings. That’s definitely what we want to develop moving forward.

Now that Honda has its new 10-speed planetary automatic in production, the hybrid engineers have an in-house benchmark for smooth driveline performance. Although it’s not a hybrid, it’s what your hybrid team will have to beat.

Yes, the 10-speed is good! We engineers continue to challenge ourselves internally by improving the technologies in all of our vehicles, hybrids and also other types.