What’s Next: The Tiny Hybrid Arms Race

As more and more major automakers jump on the Prius bandwagon, expect mainstream hybrids to get smaller and cheaper. Nissan’s been showing off its JDM electric Cube and toying with the idea of bringing it stateside, while Hyundai, the quintessential cheap-car producer, is debuting its own hybrid “Blue-Will” at the Seoul Motor Show. It’s funny that just a few years ago, proto-green rides like GM’s EV1 and the first-gen Honda Insight spooked consumers by being too petite. But today, the exploding popularity of the smart car and the horde of startup companies showcasing pocket-sized EVs have beaten a path to consumer acceptance of the “small is beautiful” credo. Meanwhile, Honda’s revamped Insight hybrid, while appearing to be a Prius copycat, will be a couple of inches smaller than its competitor in both height and length, and will undercut Toyota’s iconic hybrid by several thousand dollars–the Insight can be had for under $20K. Toyota, rattled by the Prius-killing potential of this development, has responded by announcing a new “dedicated” hybrid based on the ultra-econo Yaris subcompact platform. Suddenly small is the new black, and it kind of makes you wonder if this race to the bottom is going to make a stillborn out of GM’s comparatively chunky, $35-$40K Volt–but with all the problems in Detroit, maybe that issue is moot. Stay tuned.