Elbil honda e
The Honda e is a statement. It would have been easy for Honda to take an existing model, stuff in a battery and then try to sell it to you, as a number of other manufacturers have done. But with the Honda e, there's a real sense of rebirth for Honda, a sense of excitement - as this cute little urban EV races out of the gates, looking to shake-up the more affordable end of the electric car market.
And excite it does: make no mistake, there's a whole lot happening around the Honda e that deserves your attention.
Honda e:Ny1 – Nørdet navn til god elbil
We've now driven it on UK roads, too, further adding to our understanding of why this is such a hugely appealing all-electric car. It's easy to say that the Honda e is one of the most adorable little cars we've driven for some time. It has character, it has personality, and it really is a lot of fun to drive. It's also a car that's loaded with tech, taking a refreshing approach in the interior and giving you options that you simply don't get in other cars, including those that would cost twice the price.
Compared to close rivals, the Honda e feels different - and that goes a long way in small cars. But so much of what the Honda e achieves it does so because the battery is small - it keeps the price down, it keeps it light and compact and the charging time short, but that also means that the range isn't going to suit all people. Ultimately buying an electric car should be about what you need it to do.
This isn't a car that's designed for hammering up and down the motorways, it's for those people who know that most of their driving is short distances. If that's you, then there's nothing else on the roads with this kind of personality. Designed from the ground up as an electric car, Honda skipped the traditional exciting-concept-boring-production-car route. Instead it created the car it wanted to create.
Having sat around the table with the designers of this car, there's a real sense that they were allowed to do what they wanted with it. That's hugely important, because it means that the Honda e doesn't feel like it's been popped out of a mould.
Ny pris på e:Ny1
It's fresh and interesting, littered with little details that give it personality. And many of these elements are standard, with two models - Normal or Advance - and five paint colours. There isn't a huge range of options, but we like that simplified approach, as almost everything is standard. That also keeps the price in check, at £26, for the Normal model, or £28, for the Advance - working out to about £ or £ per month respectively in the UK market.
The Advance looks the same, but adds Honda Parking Pilot, heated seats and a heated steering wheel, as well as a more powerful motor. With a happy looking face - fronted by those round headlight eyes - the charging port has prominence on the bonnet, highlighted rather than hidden.
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The electric architecture means the interior is surprisingly roomy, it's really wide-open on the inside. About the only compromise being the boot, which is pretty small. The motor sits in the floor of the boot, so you'll struggle to get much more than a couple of weekend bags in the available litres of space. There's also no split rear seat, although you could fold the whole thing for litres of space instead.
The Honda e looks like nothing else on the road - and that's important for standing out from the crowd and turning heads in a way that few cars do. It's distinctive, it's good-looking, it's fun - imparting its personality both from the outside, but increasingly through the interior and everything that it offers. Every concept car now comes with an interior that looks more like your front room than a vehicle.
The Honda e joins those cars offering an interior that's unique. There's a natural and relaxed feel to proceedings, with fabrics more like your sofa and a dashboard that fuses the high tech - an expanse of five displays - with the traditional wooden dash look. There's a techy-retro feel to things, which is a huge release from the majority of cars which would have presented an expanse of black plastic instead.
The seats are comfortable, nicely sculpted in the front to stop you rolling on those corners, while the backseat is more of a bench. There's not huge legroom in the rear, but in this size of car you don't expect to get that. There's plenty of headroom though, with the advantage of a digital rear view mirror, so if there is a big head in the back, you'll still have a clear view out of the back although we prefer the traditional view, which can be activated by a quick pull on a lever below the mirror.
There are other details, like the small leather loop you can pull to deploy a cup holder - that helps build the distinctiveness.