Honda e Review

Sometimes at On In London, we just like to break the rules a little, you know, venture out of the box for a short while. Although we love bringing you the latest happenings in London, we took a trip just outside to Windsor, to give Honda’s new electric Honda E a spin. 

On first greeting, the new supermini was full of energy. It’s contemporary, compact, clean and modernistic body houses a front and rear black panel, with charmingly circular lights, playfully flickering as if to entice you to ride. 

The embedded door handles, invisible front windscreen wipers and suspicious lack of wing mirrors all add to the sleek and minimalist design. Unlike some of it’s small hatch electric counterparts such as the mini electric, you get the impression immediately that the design of every element of this car is considered. If you thought the outside gave this impression, wait until you see the interior. 

Stepping in, you are confronted by a full width electronic dash featuring not one, but two, twelve inch screens. This allows you to switch in-dash features such as navigation or music controls to the passenger side. Either end of the dash reveals the reason for lack of wing mirrors, you will spot two, six inch screens displaying the results of the side camera mirror system (SCMS). This is completed by a third rear camera which provides the picture for the rear view mirror screen. For those who think 2 screens is enough, or whose eyes are jarred by trying to focus on a screen for the rear view, there is a handy switch to flip this back to a standard mirror. 

One of our favourite features was the HDMI input on the lower dash allowing you to play movies or games directly onto the dash. For those who are considering playing call of duty one-handed whilst driving, forget it. This is only available whilst stationary. 

On to the driving. What really surprised us is the responsiveness and handling of a car just short of 4M long, although a city car and not an open road specialist, it still holds itself with dignity, and doesn’t wobble or flap too much when asking questions of the accelerator. A 4.3M turning radius makes it very maneuverable. 

With a 137 mile range and 30 min charge to 80%, The Honda e is a perfect city car and has some safety measures to help prevent those little busy London skirmishes. These include features to stop sudden acceleration backwards or forwards, if an obstacle is in the way, automatic emergency braking at low speeds and it even notifies the driver when the car in front has started moving. 

Two pedals just too much sometimes? there is a single pedal mode which allows the driver to accelerate and brake with one pedal, dependant on whether you are pushing down or releasing. It’s kinda like what fixies are to the bicycle. 

We think this car would be a perfect option for nipping around the streets of London although with price tags of £26,160 and £28,660 for the two models it may not be accessible to everyone. 

Our pants have been suitably charmed off by the Honda e and we can’t wait to give it a spin around London. 

For more info. visit: https://www.honda.co.uk/cars/new/honda-e/overview.html

Written by Rick Hartley