Honda may undercut Toyota with hybrid

Honda Motor Co. may price its new Insight gasoline-electric car lower than Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius hybrid, as it tries to boost sales of hybrid cars by ninefold.

Honda aims to sell the Insight for about $18,970, President Takeo Fukui said at a recent press conference at the Paris Motor Show.

The Insight is the first of four new or revamped hybrids Tokyo-based Honda plans to introduce by the early part of the next decade to reduce Toyota Motor Corp.’s lead in the segment.

Higher gasoline prices are boosting demand for fuel-efficient and alternate-energy cars worldwide.

“There is a pretty good chance for Honda to be able to win customers from Toyota,” said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager, at Tokyo-based Daiwa SB investments Ltd., which manages $28 billion. “There is strong demand for hybrids globally.”

Honda aims to sell 200,000 units of the hybrid Insight automobile.

It will go on sale in Japan, North America and Europe next year.

The company’s other hybrid models to be introduced by early 2010s include the CR- Z and the Fit compact.

Honda will also redesign the Civic Hybrid.

The company aims to boost hybrid sales to 500,000 annually by early 2010s, compared with 55,420 hybrid vehicles last year.

In contrast, Toyota aims to double its hybrid sales to 1 million units a year early in the next decade.