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THIS ALTERNATIVE ENERGY CAR IS A REAL CAR, TOO

Whenever the prospect of driving an alternative energy vehicle arises, two fair questions are inevitable: Does it drive like a real car? How much hassle is it to keep it charged/ juiced/gassed?

With the new Honda Insight, the first gasoline-electric hybrid auto sold in the United States, the answers to those questions are: Yes, remarkably so. And, no problem at all because any gasoline station will do.

I spent more than a week in Honda’s spiffy two-seater and found it had no problems climbing country hills, cruising effortlessly on the highway, and, when the need arose, running nimbly where the big dogs roam out in the passing lanes on the interstate.

So yes, this is a real car. In the past, alternative energy vehicles meant buyers paid a price in performance, convenience, or comfort – suffering for the environment. A noble cause, but when real rubber met the road, not many people were willing to suffer quite that much.

Now comes the future, if – and this is the big if – enough drivers in the United States will turn at least partially away from the big-rig fever that engulfs us and scoop up hybrids like the Insight, Toyota’s soon-to-be-available Prius, or myriad other hybrid vehicles, including pickup trucks, sedans, or SUVs, that will make their way to market by 2005.

The Insight, already on sale in California and in the East in January, is a bargain right now at about $19,500. Honda acknowledges it is selling the Insight at a loss, but says that is because the car is a rolling technology platform, an investment toward the day when buyers may line up to purchase Insights or other Honda products with Insight’s hybrid influence.

In the meantime, they just want to get people into the Insight to show what it can do.

Again, this is a real car. It’s a three-door hatchback that seats two quite comfortably. Standard equipment includes power windows and power steering, remote keyless entry, and antilock brakes.

From the outside, it has a bit of a schizophrenic appearance. Up front, it looks like any other Honda rolling toward you. Directly from the rear, it looks Honda all the way. But from the sides, especially the rear quarter panels with melded fender skirts, it shrieks different, experimental – too bad because all else is so subtle.

Inside, you feel as if you could be sitting in any small Honda.

The seats are broad, long, and firm, and driver and passenger do not rub shoulders.

Instruments are simple and literally engaging. RPMs in a circle to the left, charge status of the batteries in a circle to the right, speedometer in a circle at center. But below these three is where true engagement begins. Here you find a moving bar-graph that tells you, as you give gas, let off on gas, coast, roll, draft behind a truck, exactly what gasoline mileage you are getting at that moment.

You can’t help but play with the gauge and even if you are not out to set mileage records – I was not and still averaged 61 miles per gallon in more than a week of driving – you find yourself paying attention to the fuel you burn.

Honda did this on purpose – just as it added several ways to figure average mileage over specific trips or the life of the car.

So you’re on a trip, rolling easily in highway traffic. Your luggage is on the broad, flat deck above the battery pack behind the seats. Trip incidentals fit nicely in a webbed pouch that hangs behind and between the seats.

Your 10.6-gallon gasoline tank has just been filled, your battery pack is being regularly recharged, and you won’t need to pull into another gas station for well over 600 miles.

How can this be?

Think small gasoline engine, small electric motor, nimble 5-speed manual transmission, and ultra-lightweight materials in engines, chassis, and suspension. Think aerodynamics (remember those ugly rear quarter panels?).

In hybrid a os, the electric motor assists the gasoline motor in times of greatest need: acceleration, starting from a from a standing stop, climbing steep grades. In the Insight (and this differs from the Prius) the electric motor never is the sole source of propulsion. This means the electric motor and the battery pack can be kept small. And so can the gasoline engine.

The Insight has a 1-liter, 3-cylinder, 67 horsepower, gasoline engine. Mounted between it and the transmission is a round (small pizza), 10-kilowatt electric motor that produces 13 horsepower.

The only time you notice something is different while driving is when the car goes into idle stop – and you put it there when you come to a stop in traffic, shift into neutral, and let out the clutch. The gasoline motor stops, but comes on again as soon as you depress the clutch and shift into gear. Seamless, and it saves gasoline sitting in traffic jams.

So you get your gasoline at stations, as always. But where do you get a constant supply of electricity? It’s called regenerative braking. When you are applying the brakes, letting off the gas to slow down in traffic, or the car is holding itself back on steep downgrades, the electric motor runs in “reverse.” Remarkably, it captures the energy created from all these braking procedures, converts it to electricity, and stores it in the 144 D-cell sized batteries that run that same electric motor on demand.

Two small motors helping each other – small not only because of that symbiotic relationship, but also because of Honda’s use of lightweight materials in the Insight.

Take the gasoline engine: 124 pounds, aluminum block, die-cast one-piece aluminum head and exhaust manifold, plastic-resin intake manifold, valve cover and water pump pully, magnesium oil pan. Plunk this into an all-aluminum body and chassis, and you’ve got a car that weighs about one ton.

Even the 4-wheel independent suspension is made with aluminum components – you’ve got struts up front, a beam axle in the rear – and they give the car a smooth, mostly sure ride. Only in the corners did it seem a little too light on its feet, tracking just a bit outside the steering line sometimes, and tracking a bit inside the line on others. But, hey, it’s not a car built for rallies.

Honda hopes to sell 4,000 Insights in the United States this year, and it is hard to believe those won’t be scooped up. There are at least that many potential buyers out there who get upset every time this column praises the performance of one of those gas-guzzlin’, ozone-eatin’, earth-destroyin’ SUVs.

For those folks, here’s your chance to start making a statement – with minimal suffering.

Nice touches:

The hanging net behind the front seats. Accessible to both driver and passenger. Holds many things of many sizes.

The see-through lower portion of the rear hatch. Good view when backing up.

Annoyances:

Those rear quarter panels. I know aero dynamics were paramount, but did they have to make the car look like a helmet worn by a bicycle racer?

SIDEBAR: The numbers
Base price: $19,500 (est.)
Price as tested: $19,500 (est.)
Horsepower/Torque: 93/102 lb-ft.
Wheelbase/Overall length: 94.5 inches/155.1 inches
Width/Height: 66.7 inches/53.3 inches
Curb weight: 2,089 lbs.
Seating: 2 passengers