Honda Motor Company announced that in February, it would begin selling the Insight, the first of its next-generation low-cost hybrid cars, in Japan, the launches in Europe and the United States being scheduled for March and April, respectively.

The Insight was introduced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Sunday and it features mileage of 40 miles per gallon in city driving and 43 mpg on the highway.

Nevertheless, Yasunari Seki, the Insight’s chief engineer, stated that the hybrid car could reach mileage of 72 mpg, with the help of an eco-lamp color meter that goes from shades of blue to green in order to point out fuel consumption optimization.

Honda said that the five-door, five-seater car had been their first true attempt to mass-market hybrid cars that use both an electric motor and a conventional engine to increase mileage.

Back in 1999, the company launched its first hybrid, which was also called the Insight, along with having added at that time the fuel-saving system to existing models such as the Accord and Civic.

Still, the aforementioned were all considered underpowered, which prompted Honda to pull the plug on all the hybrid models except the Civic one.

The last ten years, the company has sold about 300,000 hybrid cars, compared to rival Toyota that has registered sales of 1.7 million and launched its first hybrid model two years before Honda.

At the Detroit auto show, Toyota also introduced two hybrid cars, the third-generation Prius and the Lexus luxury brand’s first hybrid model.