**Honda e: A Fun and Funky Electric Vehicle**

The Honda e is an electric vehicle that has been benchmarked against cars from two classes above, including the Focus Class and the Civic Class. This means that it's designed to be comfortable and refined, despite having a fairly short wheelbase. The motor is located at the back of the car, which provides a really small turning circle of 8.6 meters, making it easy to navigate through tight spaces.

One of the key features of the Honda e is its handling. It's been designed to be fun to drive and enjoy, with a dynamic character that makes it stand out from other electric vehicles. However, some reviewers have noted that it can feel a bit unrefined at times, particularly when it comes to ride quality.

**Charging and Range**

One of the main limitations of the Honda e is its range. With an 8.9 kWh battery and a charging capacity of 35.5 kW, the car can charge from 0-80% in around half an hour using a fast charger. However, this means that it's not ideal for long journeys, and owners will need to plan their routes carefully to avoid running out of charge.

Honda has acknowledged these range limitations and is working on addressing them through software updates and other measures. The company also notes that the majority of its customers are in urban areas with short journeys, so the car is well-suited for this type of driving.

**Design and Features**

The Honda e has a distinctive design that's meant to evoke the feeling of a smartphone or an Apple product. It's fun and funky outside and inside, with a compact size that makes it easy to park and maneuver in tight spaces. The boot is small, but this isn't necessarily a problem for short journeys.

One thing that's worth noting is that Honda has designed the car with electric vehicle ownership in mind. The inverters are located at the front of the car, which provides space behind the rear seats. This means that there's less room in the back than you might expect from a car of this size.

**Target Market**

Honda believes that the e is best suited to customers who have a limited budget and want a fun and enjoyable driving experience. These are people who may not be able to afford more expensive electric vehicles, but still want to own one. The company's boss in the UK notes that many of its early adopters were from London and had short journeys, which suggests that this is a key demographic for the car.

However, Honda also acknowledges that there may be some customers who are put off by the e's limitations when it comes to range and price. These are people who may prioritize more expensive electric vehicles with longer ranges, such as the Hyundai Kona Electric or the Nissan Leaf Plus.

**Conclusion**

The Honda e is a fun and funky electric vehicle that's well-suited for short journeys in urban areas. While it has some limitations when it comes to range and price, Honda believes that these can be addressed through software updates and other measures. For customers who are looking for an affordable and enjoyable driving experience, the e may be worth considering. Ultimately, however, the decision to buy will depend on individual priorities and preferences.

As Honda's boss notes, the company is "on board" with selling electric vehicles and meeting minimum CO2 standards that will become even more stringent over time. However, he also acknowledges that some customers may not be convinced by the e's limitations. For these people, Honda may need to work harder to persuade them of its value proposition.

In the meantime, the Honda e is a car that's worth getting behind, particularly if you're looking for a fun and enjoyable driving experience without breaking the bank. It may not be perfect, but it's a great option for those who want an affordable electric vehicle with plenty of personality.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the Honda II which as the name suggests is a Honda that is electric it's a full battery electric vehicle and it is quite compact as well as being reasonably cute then perhaps not quite as cute as the original concept anyway 3.9 meters long it's slightly shorter than a Honda Jazz it's also a little bit narrower and sits closer to the ground but sometimes electric vehicles can have advantageous packaging which means they're quite spacious inside we'll come to that in a moment it sits on an all-new platform but it's really short it's got a 35 and a half kilowatt hour battery between the wheelbase which is not loads it's rear-wheel drive and there's no room in the front either because that's where all the inverter and all the other governs is but let's take a look inside and see what it's like in there alright so welcome to the inside of the e where things are quite funky which will probably be important I think because if you look at this car purely on the numbers its range at about one hundred and twenty five hundred and thirty miles isn't spectacular and it's pricing at 26 to 28 ground is quite a lot by the scheme of things so it is asking a lot of money for a car that will not go as far as others but Allah says we'll look look beyond that okay look at the car as a product so it mentions smartphones it mentions Apple corporation it's trying to sell you a lovely thing rather than just something you buy on the numbers and to be fair it is nice in here it is pretty cool there are some kind of cool retro themes and then also this enormous twin touchscreen at the front which has lots of functionality I think it takes a little bit of getting used to there also a few gimmicks in it it's got HDMI things so you could plug in your games console if you wanted to I don't know why you would you can get an aquarium up on that screen which you can look at I don't see in my car look at the screen very often when it's not going anywhere but you know whatever anyway it is quite cool and there are mirrors which have been replaced by cameras as standard which is a first I believe on a production car as standard and that reduces aerodynamic drag and aerodynamic noise from the mirrors which is quite cool but this is not a very spacious car funcly' designed and nicely finished though it is there's not loads of under thigh support there's even less room in the back but let's give Honda the benefit of the doubt for now they say it's a cool thing and also that it's nice to drive so let's go find out and so to the driving of this Honda II where the weather has taken a little bit of a turn for the worse as you can see so first impressions it's an Eevee there's no huge amount of noise normally I've driven it in conditions that are slightly better than this as well there's a huge amount of wind gusting and the rain kicking off as well but in nicer conditions I can tell you actually it is a very quiet car as it's all the way with an Eevee when you don't have so much engine noise it feels like it amplifies the road and wind noise I don't think they're excessive I think this is generally a pretty quiet smooth cruising car and what is significant about it and I think it is probably worth mentioning it's got its own platform it's got a rigid shell and a four-wheel independent suspension with McPherson struts all rounder because it's quite compact because it's got independent suspension it only weighs like 1500 kilos which it's a lot for a car of this size but not a lot for an Eevee well that means I think Honda has been able to tune it to drive actually really rather nicely it's compliant it turns reasonably willingly the steering is really nice and smooth and when it's not a sports car or anything but it is a pleasant willing car to drive and it's got that initial um you can get one in 136 or 150 yards horsepower this is the hundred and fifty horsepower version Nord 60 takes about eight seconds but what it has is it's got that electric motor at them in that it makes peak torque from zero rpm which in this case is 315 Newton meters which is about 200 and what 250 pounds foot in old money so it's got a really good at initial step off an acceleration and the motor is at the back which means that it's got very good traction so it gets going quite quickly the figure is nought to 60 in 80 seconds but as is the way with v's it feels quicker than that as you step off of the mark and it maintains a decent level of performance even as you up the speed although inevitably as is the same in internal you can busted car the faster you go the less efficient you are because the more aerodynamic drag you're playing it so the driving environment is pretty good to the steering wheel adjusts for reach from rank it's this sort of big slightly retro to spoke job which on tasks be quite quite fundamental rather like that the driving position itself is quite good although I do feel a little bit short and under the thigh support and these mirrors the non mirror mirror I'm getting used to more quickly than I thought what's good about them is that they are almost in the same place as you would find them just next to the just next to the window what they do is they increase visibility just out of the window but they're also not far inboard whereas on the Audi e-tron which is the only other car I've tried which has them this just set far too low so you go looking where you think they're going to be and they're not they're here they're in the right spot and despite the fact that this weather has been foul all day long the view in them remains really clear so I think they have better lighting in dim conditions than a normal mirror sometimes it does they take some getting used to but I'm not unhappy to find them in the rest of the display works well a mix of reasonably well and and reasonably not so well the instrument pack is fine the two big screens across here I think you will find a few things that work for you probably just sync it via phone but you really that's what I do the most easy thing that I use is a smart phone so you just make that screen like that otherwise it looks a bit sort of Android you windows e I think as a rule so it's but it's fairly straightforward there's a there's a personal assistance which is just Google by voice as far as I can as far as I can tell really and a load of sub menus and stuff of that and I think you'll probably use once and never again it's fine connectivity in a car is a thing that people bang on about manufacturers bang on about because they know we're connected all the time well we like to be connected all the time there's a limit to how much we can do while we're driving and if we're not driving well we've all got a smartphone or a tablet in which we're much more familiar anyway so I don't quite understand the continued fascination with connectivity but there you go it has it it has a lot of it as a carven it's really quite nice the ride as I said is good the handling is good some TVs have this sort of skateboard architecture and they just shut her along and rattle along and they do not ride very well at all there is nothing about the dynamic character of this car that says to you it's an electric vehicle Honda says it's benchmarked cars from two classes above so like focus class or or one day a class what would they call it Civic class or a court class I suppose and that is actually how comfortable and refined I think it feels on the move despite having a fairly short wheelbase and yes it turns really nice it's got a really small turning circle because the motor is at the back and the front wheels turn a lot so between curbs the turning diameter is something like eight and a half meters which is a pretty 8.6 meters which is probably a good meter and a half less than most super minis so that's all the good stuff what is not the good stuff well I've got 90% of my charge left and it says the range is 117 kilometers it's a cold day and I've you know I'm tempted to have the heated steering wheel on even but that is not a very long way you can charge this 35 and a half kilowatt hour battery at 100 kilowatts but it doesn't take a huge amount less time than it does charging over 50 kilowatts you can do both I think it's like flying from like Birmingham to Edinburgh you know by the time you you're by the time you've ramped up it's time to come back down again so you don't spend any time at that peak cruising speed of 100 kilowatt charging so 50 kilowatt hundred kilowatt you can get 80% of charge into this battery in around half an hour and if you're doing distances given the range that's what you'd have to do but Honda says we'll look you know these people you know the majority of the 200 orders they've had as I speak to you now a few months before the cars launch most of them are in and around London most of them have short journeys this is a car that is fine for short journeys and if you want to make longer journeys well maybe this car isn't for you but it's a couple people who like the product it's a car for people who cut out three and have have got 300 350 pounds a month to spend on a nice thing that they like spending time in and if you drive 10,000 miles a year well chances are perhaps this is not perhaps this is not the car for you Honda's ok with that so given a verdict is difficult I was just speaking to the boss of cars for Honda in the UK he says look our dealers are on board with selling electric vehicles the company is on board with selling electric vehicles you know legislators are on board with selling electric vehicles it's all fine and this is the way it is all going because the minimum co2 standards that European manufacturers have to have to hit in 2020 2021 and will become even more stringent throughout the next decade all car manufacturers have to sell electric vehicles they're all on board with that but he wasn't sure whether all customers were on board with that because if you are going into a dealer and you say well I've got a hundred jazz it cost me 12 grand I like it very much and I fill up once a month then it cost me 35 quid and now here is a car of the same size in fact even smaller inside much smaller inside there's no room at the back that boot is tiny and there's no room at the front because the inverters are all there so anyway it's a small car so where does that leave the e well there are things that are good about it and I think they probably get you in it and there are things that are limited about it and they strike me in that's dominated by range and price they struck me as things that but affect the decisions made up there what's good is it's fun it's quite funky but not as funky as the concept process but is quite funky outside and inside it's enjoyable to drive its pleasant to get along with so if you look at it strictly rationally I think the e is a bit of a tough sell but if you look at it emotionally well then perhaps it is a car that you could rub along with but what I think you've probably got to do is go with what Honda says when it says yeah it's like a smartphone it's like an Apple product it's like a premium fun thing to buy and own and enjoy and like rather than just an appliance well you've kind of got to make that commitment to it and there are a lot of other V's around really good V's around don't ask you to quite make that choicethis is the Honda II which as the name suggests is a Honda that is electric it's a full battery electric vehicle and it is quite compact as well as being reasonably cute then perhaps not quite as cute as the original concept anyway 3.9 meters long it's slightly shorter than a Honda Jazz it's also a little bit narrower and sits closer to the ground but sometimes electric vehicles can have advantageous packaging which means they're quite spacious inside we'll come to that in a moment it sits on an all-new platform but it's really short it's got a 35 and a half kilowatt hour battery between the wheelbase which is not loads it's rear-wheel drive and there's no room in the front either because that's where all the inverter and all the other governs is but let's take a look inside and see what it's like in there alright so welcome to the inside of the e where things are quite funky which will probably be important I think because if you look at this car purely on the numbers its range at about one hundred and twenty five hundred and thirty miles isn't spectacular and it's pricing at 26 to 28 ground is quite a lot by the scheme of things so it is asking a lot of money for a car that will not go as far as others but Allah says we'll look look beyond that okay look at the car as a product so it mentions smartphones it mentions Apple corporation it's trying to sell you a lovely thing rather than just something you buy on the numbers and to be fair it is nice in here it is pretty cool there are some kind of cool retro themes and then also this enormous twin touchscreen at the front which has lots of functionality I think it takes a little bit of getting used to there also a few gimmicks in it it's got HDMI things so you could plug in your games console if you wanted to I don't know why you would you can get an aquarium up on that screen which you can look at I don't see in my car look at the screen very often when it's not going anywhere but you know whatever anyway it is quite cool and there are mirrors which have been replaced by cameras as standard which is a first I believe on a production car as standard and that reduces aerodynamic drag and aerodynamic noise from the mirrors which is quite cool but this is not a very spacious car funcly' designed and nicely finished though it is there's not loads of under thigh support there's even less room in the back but let's give Honda the benefit of the doubt for now they say it's a cool thing and also that it's nice to drive so let's go find out and so to the driving of this Honda II where the weather has taken a little bit of a turn for the worse as you can see so first impressions it's an Eevee there's no huge amount of noise normally I've driven it in conditions that are slightly better than this as well there's a huge amount of wind gusting and the rain kicking off as well but in nicer conditions I can tell you actually it is a very quiet car as it's all the way with an Eevee when you don't have so much engine noise it feels like it amplifies the road and wind noise I don't think they're excessive I think this is generally a pretty quiet smooth cruising car and what is significant about it and I think it is probably worth mentioning it's got its own platform it's got a rigid shell and a four-wheel independent suspension with McPherson struts all rounder because it's quite compact because it's got independent suspension it only weighs like 1500 kilos which it's a lot for a car of this size but not a lot for an Eevee well that means I think Honda has been able to tune it to drive actually really rather nicely it's compliant it turns reasonably willingly the steering is really nice and smooth and when it's not a sports car or anything but it is a pleasant willing car to drive and it's got that initial um you can get one in 136 or 150 yards horsepower this is the hundred and fifty horsepower version Nord 60 takes about eight seconds but what it has is it's got that electric motor at them in that it makes peak torque from zero rpm which in this case is 315 Newton meters which is about 200 and what 250 pounds foot in old money so it's got a really good at initial step off an acceleration and the motor is at the back which means that it's got very good traction so it gets going quite quickly the figure is nought to 60 in 80 seconds but as is the way with v's it feels quicker than that as you step off of the mark and it maintains a decent level of performance even as you up the speed although inevitably as is the same in internal you can busted car the faster you go the less efficient you are because the more aerodynamic drag you're playing it so the driving environment is pretty good to the steering wheel adjusts for reach from rank it's this sort of big slightly retro to spoke job which on tasks be quite quite fundamental rather like that the driving position itself is quite good although I do feel a little bit short and under the thigh support and these mirrors the non mirror mirror I'm getting used to more quickly than I thought what's good about them is that they are almost in the same place as you would find them just next to the just next to the window what they do is they increase visibility just out of the window but they're also not far inboard whereas on the Audi e-tron which is the only other car I've tried which has them this just set far too low so you go looking where you think they're going to be and they're not they're here they're in the right spot and despite the fact that this weather has been foul all day long the view in them remains really clear so I think they have better lighting in dim conditions than a normal mirror sometimes it does they take some getting used to but I'm not unhappy to find them in the rest of the display works well a mix of reasonably well and and reasonably not so well the instrument pack is fine the two big screens across here I think you will find a few things that work for you probably just sync it via phone but you really that's what I do the most easy thing that I use is a smart phone so you just make that screen like that otherwise it looks a bit sort of Android you windows e I think as a rule so it's but it's fairly straightforward there's a there's a personal assistance which is just Google by voice as far as I can as far as I can tell really and a load of sub menus and stuff of that and I think you'll probably use once and never again it's fine connectivity in a car is a thing that people bang on about manufacturers bang on about because they know we're connected all the time well we like to be connected all the time there's a limit to how much we can do while we're driving and if we're not driving well we've all got a smartphone or a tablet in which we're much more familiar anyway so I don't quite understand the continued fascination with connectivity but there you go it has it it has a lot of it as a carven it's really quite nice the ride as I said is good the handling is good some TVs have this sort of skateboard architecture and they just shut her along and rattle along and they do not ride very well at all there is nothing about the dynamic character of this car that says to you it's an electric vehicle Honda says it's benchmarked cars from two classes above so like focus class or or one day a class what would they call it Civic class or a court class I suppose and that is actually how comfortable and refined I think it feels on the move despite having a fairly short wheelbase and yes it turns really nice it's got a really small turning circle because the motor is at the back and the front wheels turn a lot so between curbs the turning diameter is something like eight and a half meters which is a pretty 8.6 meters which is probably a good meter and a half less than most super minis so that's all the good stuff what is not the good stuff well I've got 90% of my charge left and it says the range is 117 kilometers it's a cold day and I've you know I'm tempted to have the heated steering wheel on even but that is not a very long way you can charge this 35 and a half kilowatt hour battery at 100 kilowatts but it doesn't take a huge amount less time than it does charging over 50 kilowatts you can do both I think it's like flying from like Birmingham to Edinburgh you know by the time you you're by the time you've ramped up it's time to come back down again so you don't spend any time at that peak cruising speed of 100 kilowatt charging so 50 kilowatt hundred kilowatt you can get 80% of charge into this battery in around half an hour and if you're doing distances given the range that's what you'd have to do but Honda says we'll look you know these people you know the majority of the 200 orders they've had as I speak to you now a few months before the cars launch most of them are in and around London most of them have short journeys this is a car that is fine for short journeys and if you want to make longer journeys well maybe this car isn't for you but it's a couple people who like the product it's a car for people who cut out three and have have got 300 350 pounds a month to spend on a nice thing that they like spending time in and if you drive 10,000 miles a year well chances are perhaps this is not perhaps this is not the car for you Honda's ok with that so given a verdict is difficult I was just speaking to the boss of cars for Honda in the UK he says look our dealers are on board with selling electric vehicles the company is on board with selling electric vehicles you know legislators are on board with selling electric vehicles it's all fine and this is the way it is all going because the minimum co2 standards that European manufacturers have to have to hit in 2020 2021 and will become even more stringent throughout the next decade all car manufacturers have to sell electric vehicles they're all on board with that but he wasn't sure whether all customers were on board with that because if you are going into a dealer and you say well I've got a hundred jazz it cost me 12 grand I like it very much and I fill up once a month then it cost me 35 quid and now here is a car of the same size in fact even smaller inside much smaller inside there's no room at the back that boot is tiny and there's no room at the front because the inverters are all there so anyway it's a small car so where does that leave the e well there are things that are good about it and I think they probably get you in it and there are things that are limited about it and they strike me in that's dominated by range and price they struck me as things that but affect the decisions made up there what's good is it's fun it's quite funky but not as funky as the concept process but is quite funky outside and inside it's enjoyable to drive its pleasant to get along with so if you look at it strictly rationally I think the e is a bit of a tough sell but if you look at it emotionally well then perhaps it is a car that you could rub along with but what I think you've probably got to do is go with what Honda says when it says yeah it's like a smartphone it's like an Apple product it's like a premium fun thing to buy and own and enjoy and like rather than just an appliance well you've kind of got to make that commitment to it and there are a lot of other V's around really good V's around don't ask you to quite make that choice\n"