I thought Honda had a car called the Insight before. What's the big deal?

Good memory you have! Honda actually had a hybrid on the US market a few months before the Toyota Prius, and it was indeed called the Insight. Produced from 1999 to 2006, the original Insight only managed to sell roughly 18,000 units, while the Prius ended up in hundreds of thousands of driveways during this same period. With its new Insight, Honda believes it can sell 200,000 annually world-wide.

All photos courtesy of Honda, unless noted otherwise