Dongfeng Honda inspiper

On July 3, Dongfeng Honda launched the new generation of the Insignia, with a total of six models. As with the replacement Accord, the new model has been replaced with a plug-in hybrid model to meet market demand.

The new car will continue to be positioned as the sporty sister car of the wide Honda Accord offering differentiated products. It should be noted, however, that compared to the previous generation (22 models), the pricing of the replacement Insignia has increased, by up to 13,900 yuan.

Externally, the new model follows Honda's latest design language, but adds more sporty touches to enhance the overall ambience compared to the Accord - a straight grille, twin air intakes and flared air intakes shaped like wind blades make the Insignia look similar to the AMG GT four-door model.

Inside, the Insignia enhances the sense of luxury by mixing leather and suede, adding BOSE audio and adjustable ambient lighting. Inside, the new car is also upgraded with Honda's current latest car system, which adds new features including face recognition, live view navigation and driver status monitoring compared to its predecessor. In addition, the inclusion of features including HUD and built-in ETC also help to improve the practicality of the Insignia.

The Inspire is identical to the Accord in terms of power: the fuel version has a 1.5T engine with a maximum power of 192 hp and 260 N-m; the plug-in model supports three modes of free switching: pure electric, hybrid and direct engine drive, with a maximum pure electric range of 82 km under WLTC standards and a total range of approximately 963 km.

The Insignia is the successor to the Sporty Accord, which was also launched by Dongfeng Honda. After the sporty Sporty was discontinued, the Insignia achieved good sales by enhancing the sporty exterior but maintaining a comfortable + moderately luxurious interior.

With this replacement, the Insignia clearly hopes to continue the market performance of Dongfeng Honda's mid-size car in the same way. The elimination of the hybrid model and the addition of a plug-in hybrid model with preferential purchase and licensing policies further enhances the product appeal of the Insignia.

However, the current situation faced by Inspire is that the landscape of the mainstream mid-size car market has changed.

On the one hand, while joint venture models such as Camry/Asian Dragon, Maitreya/Passat and Mareb XL/Juniper still occupy an absolute share of the domestic mid-size car market, some joint venture car companies (such as Volkswagen and Toyota), in response to policy guidance in the domestic market, have started to experiment with the electrification of their models on sale.

On the other hand, independent brands of new energy such as BYD Han, Neta S and Leapmotor C11 are also posing a clear threat to mid-sized cars in the traditional sense of the word, thanks to their lower prices, despite their larger positioning.

In this light, the general price increase of the Insignia compared to its predecessor seems somewhat out of place. After all, the sister car, the Accord, has already opened a general price reduction promotion less than two months after its launch.