It's well-made, well-equipped and extremely cute, but you might as well know from the start that your opinion ofHonda'snew supermini EV is going to depend almost entirely on how you view its relatively meagre WLTP cruising range of 125 miles.
This dominant statistic (low compared with most other electric cars currently being rushed to market) directly controlswho will buy the Honda Eand how it will be used. It's even more important even than the relatively high price, which starts just over £26,000 for a basic version (after the £3000 government grant) and runs close to £30,000 once you've bought the plusher, faster Advance version and added obvious options.
Knowing that range talk will be dominant, Honda is careful to describe the new car as an urban runabout, relentlessly pointing out that the average British motorist's commute is only about a fifth of the little E's range, which means its battery has plenty of juice for most suburbanites. You may also like: Bluetooth obd2. If you need more, it implies, better to buy something else. Or own a second car.
The flaw in thes from the E's innate eye and driver appeal. Its modern, simple reprise of the styling ofthe 1972 Civic– itself a new kind of Honda back in the day – makes it uniquely appealing among current small cars. Once you're behind the wheel, it soon dawns on you that the E is also dynamically different from the horde: it avoids the disappointingly oversprung and underdamped suspension of many electric cars (especially those towards the bottom of the size/price range), and that's another inducement to the driver to use it for more than the low-grade errands implied by the words ‘urban' and ‘commuter'.
Mind you, it's easy enough to understand what Honda is saying: the E is a small car, just 3.9 metres long and, even with its modest 35.5kWh battery, the lightest of the two varaints weighs 1514kg. Give it a big battery and you would add 20cm or 150kg and get a car with an entirely different character and price. Other car makers have shied away from uniquely engineered small EVs, and this is why.
One virtue of the E's small battery is that it can be charged quickly: about half an hour on a rapid charger lifts it from 20-80% and most home chargers need four or five hours to restore it completely from depletion. If you park the range subject, or reach your own accommodation with it, suddenly you're talking about a rather special little car.
Honda certainly feels so: it points out that it could simply have strapped a battery underthe recently launched front wheel-drive Jazz hybrid(longer and a bit more spacious in the back), but it instead chose to give the E a new platform to give it dynamically pure rear-wheel drive, plus a 50:50 weight distribution and MacPherson strut-type independent suspension at either end. The move away from front-wheel drive also allows the steered wheels to turn very tightly, which yields the taxi-beating turning circle of 8.6 metres between kerbs.
The E's single electric drive motor sits between its rear wheels. In the base model, it makes 134bhp, while the Advance we tested gets 151bhp. Both are good for 232lb ft of torque (from standstill), but the Advance's extra power shaves 0.7sec off the 0-62mph time of 9.0sec, even though its extra gear adds around 30kg. Power is fed into the battery via a Type 2 socket under a flap in the bonnet that neatly doubles as a styling feature.
Almost every dimension of the E points to its central purpose. It occupies about the same road footprint asthe current Mini , but it's nearly 10cm taller, so it feels pleasantly high, has a spacious and upright driving position, offers a great view of the road and affords easy cabin access front and rear. The 2530mm wheelbase is one of the longest going for a car of this length; combined with wide tracks and an ultra-low centre of gravity (courtesy of that underfloor battery), this lets the E muster impressive stability and good roll control.
Rear seat room is decent, given the car's length, but the boot is small, because it has a high floor, due to the drive motor lurking beneath. The interior is a fascinating combination of trim that deliberately uses furniture-in...

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