Living with the Honda e
Review by Jacob Lerklint
My first glimpse of the Honda e was at the Frankfurt motor show back in 2017, back then it was called the Urban EV concept and it would take further two years before Honda unveiled the final production car in 2019. The Honda e is the brands first genuine attempt at an all electric car.
Measuring only 3,85 in meters, the Honda e consists of a 35,5kwh battery sitting beneath the middle of the car’s floor mated to a single motor on the rear axle. You have the choice of choosing between two horsepower outputs; either a 136hp one or a slightly stronger 154hp motor. Both options produce the same amount of torque, 315nm. Before we can talk about how this thing drives, we need to address the exterior look. When I first saw pictures of the Honda e I instantly fell in love with it, just look at it! No unnecessary creases or weird lines around it. It is certainly a modern take on the first generation Honda Civic. People seem to love it, I have never had so many positive comments purely on the design of a car that I have tested before this.
The exterior may look all retro and simple but the interior is the complete opposite. The inside of the Honda e is a Japanese tech fest. There is two 12.3 inch touchscreens and an 8 inch TFT covering the entire length of the dashboard. But that’s not all, on each side there’s a screen which works as your digital side mirrors, you even get a digital rear view mirror. If you don’t like technology this is not the car for you. With all the screens and technology you would think that the Honda e won’t be a nice place to spend time in but then you would be wrong. It does not appear like you are sitting in a regular car when you are in the Honda e, it’s more like sitting in a nice expensive lounge. The recycled polyester seats are tremendously comfortable even though they aren't very side supportive, it’s almost like sitting in an old comfy chair. Being an EV from the ground up you get a flat floor and plenty of space in the front. It’s spacious and open unlike many other cars today. Honda has worked hard on the attention to detail with e, there are frameless doors. Also the interior lights looks just like the spotlights you get at home. And the strap for the cup holder is covered in leatherlike material. It is small things like these that makes the Honda e a pleasant place to be in. If you get bored while waiting for the car to recharge; you can use the 230V house plug that the Honda e has for perhaps charging your computer or you might even play some Xbox because of the HDMI input it has installed.
It's not just the look and the luxurious interior that the Honda e have impressed me with: it is on the road where it really shines. Yes, it still weighs around 1500kg but with a 50/50 weight distribution and independent suspension the Honda e feels super agile in and around the city. It might not be as fast as other EV's but the 0-100kmh is around 8 seconds, but as with all these electric cars the torque hits pretty much instant. Don't forget, the Honda e is rear wheel drive and what’s surprising is that you can fully deactivate the traction control. If you really want, you can have some pretty serious sideways action with it. The Honda e has an incredible turning circle of 4.3m. There is almost no limit for where you can’t turn around. You get two drive modes, normal for just cruising around and sport for a quicker throttle response. I just leave it in sport-mode, the normal mode feels too sluggish. There is a button for one pedal driving and you can adjust the regenerative braking in four different stages with the paddles behind the steering wheel.
So far the Honda e sounds very promising right? Well, as most things in life is not perfect, this one isn't either. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the range or the lack of it. I only managed to drive 195km’s combining highway and city driving. That might be enough range for most people but considering the Honda e price starts at 378 300kr for the base car I would’ve liked a bit more range. The positive side with the Honda e’s tiny 35,5kwh battery is the quick charging, 0-80% in circa 30 minutes from a 50kw DC charger. You can charge at a 100kw maximum but it doesn’t really charge faster at 100kw compared to 50kw fast charging.
When I first saw the Honda e, I knew I wanted one. After spending one week with the press car, I want one more than ever. It’s fun to drive, it looks cool and has more technology than any other small EV. But most people don’t really care about those things, they just want a car to get from A to B. With the price being on the higher end of the spectrum the Honda e is hard to justify. You don’t need one but you’ll want one as soon you get behind the wheel.
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