Honda may miss U.S. sales target for the 2010 Honda Insight

We’ve been hearing all good things about the 2010 Honda Insight hybrid – it’s cheaper than the 2010 Toyota Prius, was the best-selling vehicle in Japan in April and Honda even considered increasing output for the United States market. However, according to American Honda Motor Executive Vice President John Mendel, Honda may fall short of its U.S. sales goal for the Insight by a third in the models first year.

Why? Mendel says that the recession and the cheap gasoline prices have both contributed to the matter. It seems like those Americans that don’t have money aren’t purchasing cars and those that do, are back to purchasing gas-guzzling vehicles since gas is relatively cheap.

“Given some dramatic change in things, I don’t think we’ll get to 90,000. At 50,000 to 60,000, we will be just fine,” Mendel told Bloomberg.

Honda expects to sell a total of 200,000 units of the 2010 Insight worldwide in its first full year of sales (which started in later March for the U.S.). The Japanese automaker expects half of that to come from North America.

2010 Honda Insight:

– By: The Daily Auto Editor

Source: Reuters