Hi,
I am seriously considering buying a Honda Insight, mainly because of environmental reasons.
However, one thing really does concern me, the insight uses a large quantity of Ni-MH battteries right? If I recall correctly, these are good for 10,000 charge/discarge cycles. Now because of the way hybrids work, I assume charging and discharging is going to occur frequently?
So what is the expected lifespan of the batteries? I assume the cost of replacing then would be prohibitive, and the environmental cost of manyfacturing and disposing of a large amount of Ni-MH batteries will probably offset the gain from the low fuel consumption.
This is especiially when considering the Insight next to its nearest competitor - the smart car which is also a two seater. Its emmissions are 112g/km vs 80g/km for the Insight, but it uses a turbo charged 700cc engine to propel a car only 2.5 meters long, not to mention it is considerably cheaper and isn't a hybrid.
So I was wondering what people reckon. Clearly the Insight hasn't been around long enough for battery life to be a problem, but I reckon a few people may be in for a rude awakaning?
I am seriously considering buying a Honda Insight, mainly because of environmental reasons.
However, one thing really does concern me, the insight uses a large quantity of Ni-MH battteries right? If I recall correctly, these are good for 10,000 charge/discarge cycles. Now because of the way hybrids work, I assume charging and discharging is going to occur frequently?
So what is the expected lifespan of the batteries? I assume the cost of replacing then would be prohibitive, and the environmental cost of manyfacturing and disposing of a large amount of Ni-MH batteries will probably offset the gain from the low fuel consumption.
This is especiially when considering the Insight next to its nearest competitor - the smart car which is also a two seater. Its emmissions are 112g/km vs 80g/km for the Insight, but it uses a turbo charged 700cc engine to propel a car only 2.5 meters long, not to mention it is considerably cheaper and isn't a hybrid.
So I was wondering what people reckon. Clearly the Insight hasn't been around long enough for battery life to be a problem, but I reckon a few people may be in for a rude awakaning?