With the launch of Honda’s new hybrid car, the Insight, the Toyota Prius now has some competition in the greener car market. The Insight, which Honda name as ‘A hybrid for everyone’, comes in cheaper than the Prius which has been ‘the’ hybrid car for the past ten years, but it’s £18k price tag has left it sadly outside the budget of many people. Honda’s hybrid makes the option available to more people, with prices starting from £15,490.

So what do you get for your money? Well apart from the standard hybrid features that the Prius has, an 8-year or 100,000 mile warranty on its hybrid components to put people’s minds at rest who haven’t ventured into this area of technology before, excellent fuel economy, having the ability to comfortably hit 60mpg, although the official stats boast 62.4mpg and emissions are low at 101g of CO2 emitted per km travelled. The added bonus of no congestion charges to pay if frequenting central London, and for the rest of us, only £15 road tax, make it easier to see what could make this car extremely attractive as an alternative to the Prius.

However not everybody can afford a brand new car, and if they can, even this will be out of the league of many. There is a lot more choice of economic vehicles about than there used to be, such as VW’s blue motion Polo and Golf which offer 74.3 and 62.8mpg respectively, and the Polo only emits 99g/km of CO2. And of course, although not the answer for everyone, the only carbon emissions from a bike are from the breath of the rider…