Move over, Prius

That beep-beep you hear in your rearview mirror is the new Honda Insight 2.0 blurring past you in Japanese auto sales. The new Insight, due for American sales rollout Tuesday, could well do the same here.

It’s priced less than $20K, below the current Prius 2.0 and surely below whatever Prius 3.0 will hit market at. Honda does this by simplifying its hybrid drive, vis-à-vis the Prius, and by building the new Insight as essentially a Honda vehicle, and not something new from the ground up.

That said, the simpler technology sacrifices about 2mpg on the highway to the Prius 2.0 and about 4, it’s expected, to Prius 3.0. it will also give up room to the third-gen Prius.

BUT, gas prices are low enough right now a couple of mpg within the hybrid world won’t matter for the price tag.

Toyota knows that, itself, and is supposedly bringing out a lower-priced hybrid in response.

Meanwhile, both companies continue work on lithium-ion batteries.

And the Chevy Volt? Maybe it will stick its nose out of a garage sometime before the end of the year, see its shadow,and go into permanent hibernation.

I agree with the analysis part of the story. All-electric cars are probably as dead as a doorknob for the foreseeable future. Once again, GM will strike out.

And not just GM. Euro carmakers are also way behind the curve on hybrids. Honda has done more look at passenger diesels than has Toyota. If it can drop a diesel Insight on Germany, boom, it gets a definite Euro foothold.