Leading the car industry in fuel economy, the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius models has some of the best fuel-efficiency you can find in a hybrid automobile. The first Insight dates back to 1999, while the first Prius launched in 1997. Both of these Japanese companies have made some of the most reliable and affordable cars in the industry, and have dominated since their early beginnings. For the year of 2020, Toyota was second in the US in total vehicle sales with 1,837,989 (Ford in first with 1,929,195), while Honda was fourth with 1,199,805, both companies ranking fairly high.

Honda and Toyota have seen success with many of their other models, as Honda had two different models make the list of top 10 vehicles sold in 2020, while Toyota had three models. The Honda CR-V was fifth on that list (333,502), and the Honda Civic was eighth (261,225). Coming in fourth was the Toyota RAV4 (430,387), sixth was the Toyota Camry (294,348), then at ten was the massive Toyota Tacoma (238,806).

The Honda Insight and Toyota Prius may not be as successful and stylish as other models in their respective brands, but they definitely do well for their niche audiences. Let’s compare the two models and see which one comes out as the top fuel efficient vehicle. For recency’s sake, we’ll put the 2021 base models against each other.

	Honda Insight	Toyota Prius
MSRP	$23,130 ✅	$24,525
MPG	55 City /49 Hwy	58 City / 53 Hwy ✅
Fuel Tank Capacity	10.6 gal	11.3 gal ✅
Horspower	151 hp ✅	121 hp
Trunk/Cargo Volume	15.1 ft³ Trunk Volume	27.4 ft³ Cargo Volume ✅
Passenger Volume	97.6 ft³ ✅	93.1 ft³

Both cars have many similar specs but as you can see above the Prius is better in fuel efficiency. However, the Insight costs less and offers more space inside of the car, sacrificing trunk space in return. The Prius has come along way in looks, and has less of that “Prius” look, but it’s still a hatchback and the Insight simply has more of a stylish appeal to it.

The Insight is also more customizable, with add-on options such as a rear spoiler, chrome accents, and real leather trimmed-seats as opposed to the Prius’ synthetic leather-like material. You can’t go wrong with either of these cars, and they both have their trade-offs. But when it comes to fuel efficiency, the Prius is king.