The Honda E is a small electric city car with a range of around 120 miles
There wasn’t a great deal to smile about in 2020, but one memory that stands out more than most, at least as far as driving was concerned, is the Honda E. Small, adorable and the automotive equivalent of an excitable puppy, the E brought a smile to my face every time I saw it, and kept the smile firmly in place wherever I drove.
Along with almost every car journalist on the planet, I fell in love with the little E back when it was first revealed in concept form as the wonderfully retro Honda Urban EV at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show. A signal of intent from Honda, the Urban EV delivered a crystal-clear message that the company wanted to kick-off its electric car campaign with a small, cute, but unashamedly-pricey city car, instead of following the crowd with a luxury sedan or SUV to play Tesla at its own game.
The Urban EV eventually morphed into the E, and while it lost some of its retro charm along the way, the finished product is still a unique and characterful thing.
Front-mounted charging port of the Honda E
Compact but taller in person that it appears in photographs, at 1,512mm, the Honda E sets out its stall from day one. This is a city car through-and-through, and while you could string together a series of rapid charger visits to complete a longer journey, its compact size and hilariously tight turning circle (seriously, it’s like a London black cab), makes it feel most comfortable when kept close to home.
And that’s fine by me. The Honda E has the eagerness of any other small electric car, surging forward on a smooth wave of torque from its 154 PS electric motor powering the rear wheels. It may only have a 0-62 mph time of 8.3 seconds, but never fails to produce a giggle from its driver when speeding away from the lights.
What’s more, the E’s sharp steering and four-wheel independent suspension mean it handles remarkably well for a city runabout. It soaks up the bumps of London streets better than you’d expect, while remaining composed when you ask more of it. It’s not a sports car, of course, but it gives off the distinct impression that Honda put real time and effort into its ride and handling characteristics.
The Honda E's interior features six digital displays, along with plenty of physical controls for ... [+]
The playful exterior looks are paired with a truly unique interior. Packed with digital displays, it can at first seem overwhelming, but after a few miles it all starts to make sense. The two outermost screens are replacements for conventional wing mirrors, fed by small cameras on the doors. They are clear, easy to use, can be adjusted to focus on the curb while parking, and work far better than I’d expected. It took maybe an hour of driving to stop glancing through the window for a rearward view, but with that habit adjusted I didn’t miss conventional mirrors at all.
The same is true of the central mirror, which can be flicked between a conventional reflection and a video feed from a camera mounted at the top of the rear windshield. Just like in the 2020 Land Rover Defender, I preferred the camera feed as it isn’t cluttered with an unnecessary view of the rear seats.
The E’s dashboard also includes a pair of infotainment touchscreens. The system can be a little confusing at first, with app icons scattered seemingly at random across both displays, with the furthermost screen ahead of the passenger and therefore too far away for the driver to reach comfortably. But once I’d learnt how to access all apps and settings pages from the nearer screen, it all made sense.
A compact city car, the Honda E has seating for four adults, but with a small rear trunk and no ... [+]
Despite presenting its driver with so many digital displays – six if you include the central mirror – Honda has smartly fitted conventional, tactile controls for the climate settings, seat heaters, media volume, and other key functions. I much prefer this approach to that of Tesla (and increasingly others) who insist on distracting touchscreens to do everything, wipers and all.
As you will doubtless have seen already, the two screens can display a virtual aquarium while the car is parked. There are different tanks and fish to pick from, and tapping at the screen drops food for them to eat. It’s a wonderfully Japanese quirk (along with the system’s cherry blossom garden wallpaper), but could keep young passengers amused while plugged in at a charging station.
That said, they will likely be more entertained by the Honda E’s HDMI port and domestic power socket, ready for a games console, computer or anything else you’d normally connect to a TV. Hook up an Xbox and, as long as the car is parked and switched on, the infotainment screen acts as a TV and the perfect distraction while the E tops up its battery.
Speaking of the battery, Honda has fitted a fairly compact 35.5 kWh pack with a stated range of around 135 miles. But in reality that figure is closer to 100 miles. For the week I had the E, it almost always felt like a 100 percent charge was worth 100 miles, no matter how I drove it. City driving in warmer weather would probably help eke out a few more miles, but regardless this is a car designed for short journeys.
That isn’t to say it feels out of place on the motorway, but the range is such that town and city driving is where the E is best-suited.
Cameras replace conventional wing mirrors for improved aerodynamics, and work better than expected
It’s a joy to drive and the independent suspension gives the E’s ride and handling a maturity you might not have been expecting. It really does handle well for a car designed for school runs and trips to the local supermarket. Describing it as go kart-like is a tired journalistic cliche, but it’s a phrase that gets the job done, and with the E it feels justified.
The E has two driving modes, called Normal and Sport. As with most EVs, you are best sticking to Normal and avoiding Sport, which does little more than sharpen the response of the accelerator pedal. Fun, but not entirely necessary.
What is worth pressing, every time you get in the E, is the button to enable regenerative braking. As with other electric cars, with this enabled the E can be driven almost exclusively with one pedal, as the more you lift the accelerator the more the car slows down using regenerative braking, which feeds energy back into the battery. With a bit of practice, you can bring the car to a halt at a motorway roundabout without once touching the brake pedal. The strength of the regen can be adjusted using paddles behind the steering wheel, but I found leaving at its strongest and almost forgetting about the brake pedal was the best approach.
Cute and with retro charm, the Honda E stands out from the crowd
Visibility is great, stowage space is adequate, and you can get a couple of adults in the back without too many complaints. However the trunk is on the small side, even for a car of this size, and there is no front trunk at all. But then this isn’t a car designed for weekends away, and there’s still adequate room for a weekly grocery shop or similar.
Summing up the Honda E is trickier than you might think. It is undeniably adorable, fun, and with a wonderful interior that manages to be futurist and retro at the same time. It’s a joy to drive and I think it looks fantastic, if a little taller than expected.
But the price is fairly high, at just under £30,000, and the range is shorter than its rivals. As far as miles for your bucks go, the Renault Zoe is head-and-shoulders above the E, thanks to costing about the same but having a range of well over 200 miles. It’s also a small, fun city car and the one you should buy with your head.
And yet...the Honda E has something about it. There is no single reason to have one over its technically superior rivals, but when you add together the design, the interior and the way it drives, I can’t help but fall for it. It would almost certainly have to be your second car, but for that role – and if you have the budget – the little E is perfect.
