When you’re an upstart vehicle determined to topple the industry leader, you take any advantage over your competitor any way you can get it.

For the Honda Insight, there’s no more gratifying challenge than to outsell the Toyota Prius in Japan. And for at least a month, the Insight was able to do that, garnering the distinction of becoming the very first hybrid car to top the monthly sales charts in Japan.

While the Prius has long been regarded as one of the most popular hybrid cars in the market, the Insight was able to move up the charts by selling 10,481 units, doing so mostly because it comes at a cheaper price tag ($19,000) – 1.89 million yen) than the Prius.

Continued after the jump.

Continued

But alas, the Insight fell back down to earth a month later when Toyota released the redesigned Prius in Japan, selling 10,915 units.

As for the Honda Insight, it fell down two places to the Prius and to one of its own cars, the Honda Fit. Despite this short reign, the Insight still has a bragging rights over the Prius when, as was mentioned, it became the first hybrid car to ever monthly sales in Japan.

Either way, the impressive showing by both the Insight and the Prius in sales shows that more and more consumers are shifting to hybrid cars as opposed to non-hybrid vehicles and its only a matter of time before the Insight and the Prius – and all other hybrid cars, for that matter – become regular residents on the top spots of monthly sales charts.