Honda Insight ranked most fuel-efficient car

The Honda Insight is the most fuel-efficient vehicle to be sold in the year 2000 ó it gets 70 miles per gallon on the highway.

October 8, 1999
Web posted at: 2:51 p.m. EDT (1851 GMT)

The Honda Insight is the most fuel-efficient car, according to the Environmental Protection Agency annual miles per gallon rankings. The two-seater car gets 61 miles per gallon in the city and 70 on the highway.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Ferrari 550 Maranello ranked lowest, with just eight miles per gallon in the city and 13 on the highway. Many popular sport utility vehicles also found low rankings with miles per gallon hovering around 12 in the city and 16 on the highway.

Land Rover's Ranger Rover was the worst in the sport utility vehicle class, with 12 miles per gallon in the city and 15 on the highway. Popular cars such as the Ford Expedition did not fare much better, just 14 miles per gallon in the city and 18 on the highway.

The Honda Insight, with a price just under $20,000, will go on sale in December. The car combines a gasoline engine with a small, self-charging electric motor/generator.

The Insight's electric motor draws power from a battery pack to boost engine performance and acts as a generator during deceleration and braking to recharge the vehicle's batteries.

The car also got kudos for meeting California's Ultra Low Emission Vehicle standards.

"The Insight combines high fuel economy and ultra-low emissions with comfort, performance and desirability," Tom Elliott, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. Inc., said in a statement.

Other fuel-efficient vehicles in various classes include the Mazda 626, a mid-size sedan; the Chevrolet Tracker and Suzuki Vitara sport utility vehicles; the Chevrolet S10, GMC Sonoma and Isuzu Hombre small pickup trucks; and the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivans.

BMW cars scored the lowest in the compact, mid-size, large sedan and small wagon categories.

The information, which has been published annually for the past 25 years, is posted on the Internet for the first time this year. The site allows users to compare fuel economy, greenhouse gas emissions and estimated annual fuel costs.

The fuel economy estimates are generated in conjunction with EPA's vehicle emission testing program. Pre-production vehicles are tested under controlled laboratory conditions for both emissions and fuel economy.

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