► We revisit the cutesy Honda E electric car
► 125-137-mile range, prices from £34k
► Our review includes long-term test
Has the Honda E stood the test of time, now the fuss about its cool style, its brain-frazzling interior tech and its slick driving dynamics has worn off? With its limited driving range it might not be among the very best electric cars. But we’re revisiting our Honda E review to see if we can still recommend it as one of the best small electric cars.
CAR magazine lived with the E for half a year in our detailed long-term test – so we’ve a good idea of exactly what the cute city car is like to own. The problem is, prices have risen significantly since launch, owing to unfavourable yen exchange rates, Covid complications and the end of the government’s Plug In Car Grant incentives.
The Honda E cost from £26k at launch (after the grant) – but that’s mushroomed to a heady £34,420 in winter 2022/23 and in September 2023 has now reached a scarcely believable £37,395. That’s unquestionable a lot for a small car competing with the Fiat 500e (now priced from £28k) and Mini Electric (from £32.5k).
You’ll have noticed that those rivals are equally cool and chic. To these eyes, the baby battery Honda holds it head high – its design might’ve been watered down slightly from 2017’s Honda Urban EV concept car, but not by much. This is still a delectably chic small car: modern, head-turning, cartoonishly fun. Read our review to see if it has talent to match its sharp wardrobe.
Honda E: the tech lowdown
A bespoke rear-wheel drive electric architecture underpins Honda’s tiny tot. The lithium-ion batteries are mounted as low as possible in the floorpan and their capacity is rated at a modest 35.5kWh, feeding a single electric motor at the back axle, available in two power outputs – 134bhp or 152bhp (both with 232lb ft of torque). It’s enough thrust to guarantee a 0-62mph dash in 9.0sec for the less powerful E, and 8.0sec for the more powerful Honda E Advance.
Honda claims a 50:50 weight distribution, and that RWD layout means the turning circle is a taxi-spec, tiny radius of just 4.3m. Bang on for the E’s main remit of nipping around in the city, then. It’s comically nimble and pulls implausible U-turns in even the tightest of spaces (as evidenced in our video review above).
That battery capacity might be small, but Honda says owners can achieve 80% battery charge in 30 minutes using a 100kW fast charger via a CCS2 plug, while a home charger from Honda will take a little over four hours. That small battery does have some advantages, but the range is low enough that many owners may feel constrained to city living.
There’s a button for one-pedal driving, much like the Nissan Leaf. Ease off the throttle and the regenerative braking is remarkably strong. If you don’t use this function, you can adjust the ferocity of the regular regenerative braking via paddles on the steering wheel, like in many other EVs and PHEVs.
What’s the interior like?
Properly swish, and arguably a significant step on in terms of refinement and build quality for the Honda brand. This is one cool cabin. More than anything, though, you can’t miss the radical, screen-heavy design. It’s like you’ve stumbled into a Roppongi digital streetscape in downtown Tokyo.
Honda’s created the interior to promote a feeling of being in a lounge, and the wall-to-wall screens and wood trim combine nicely with the light grey fabric seats to create a special atmosphere inside. The seats are properly squishy, brown seatbelts are more interesting than black restraints and neat touches like a two-spoke steering wheel and a cupholder that pulls out via a leather strap keep things interesting.
There’s a surprisingly airy feel inside, thanks to those light materials, big windows, standard-fit sunroof and a large flat area between the footwells of the front seats (there’s no transmission tunnel) all combining to good effect. The few switches needed for day-to-day driving (P, R, N, D) are set in a wooden fascia between the front seats – it’s decluttered, elegant and really simplifies the driving process without feeling stark. Bravo, Honda.
The main event inside is that full-width display, plonked on top of the dashboard like a massive flatscreen TV, stretching from door to door. It’s extraordinary, a real event. It almost looks like the desktop of a fresh-out-of-the-box laptop, yet is far less intimidating than you’d expect it to be.
Honda E: wall-to-wall digital touchscreens and cameras for door mirrors
In front of you is a small display with all driving functions like any other car with digital dials. It’s crisp and easy to read, but when adjusted to a lower position the steering wheel can partially obscure the display. Moving along, there are two 12.3-inch LCD displays for the infotainment system.
It’s easy and simple to use, with clear tiles for different functions, and the option to switch screens across. So, you can set the sat-nav on the one nearest to you and then push it over to the screen further away while you fiddle with what you want to listen to via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. The passenger can fiddle with settings as well, but not to the same degree.
Or, if you don’t want anything going on, you can choose a lovely wallpaper or a moving aquarium (yes, really!) to calm the mood when parked up. There’s also a three-pin domestic plug socket and an HDMI connection, so you can hook up a game console to the dashboard display – perfect for passing time while charging.
The side-view cameras – standard on the Honda E and much more subtle than the Audi E-Tron’s expensive, optional ones – display their view at the bookends of the information display. The positioning might be lower than your average door mirror, but it feels right very quickly; not distracting when you’re not looking but offers a wide view with a smooth and crisp camera feed when you do.
They’re claimed to halve the rear blindspot, as well as massaging the aerodynamics to further EV range. They work well in the daytime, but take a little getting used to when it’s dark.
The central rear-view mirror camera isn’t quite as successful; the display feels lower resolution than the door mirrors, to the point that your eyes have to readjust before looking through it each time – and if you drive with spray or rain blocking the view, it’s almost useless. Thankfully you can switch to a regular mirror, so it’s similar to those now also used by Land Rover.
How quick is it?
How fast does a city-dwelling electric car need to be? Given it has up to 152bhp and weighs 1.5 tonnes (heavier than a comparable ICE city car) it’s… good enough. The Honda E punches harder than a Renault Zoe from standstill, with the torque curve quickly falling off after 50mph in traditional electric car form.
Honda has added a Sport mode, which remaps the motor to provide max torque a little earlier. It delivers a good punch of acceleration as a result, but you don’t really need it in a little city car. It also sounds like the Starship Enterprise when it drives past, a mandatory pedestrian alert system you’ll either find distinctly cool or cumbersome, depending on your outlook (and age!).
How does the Honda E drive?
Let’s get the simple stuff out of the way in our Honda E review. For an EV with its batteries under the floor, the Honda E has an entry height that’s like any other city car and a driving position that does without compromise, unlike the Nissan Leaf, for example. There’s even reach-and-rake adjustment in the steering column (basics sometimes forgotten on other EVs).
Pedal weighting is definitely pretty ‘normal’, too – the throttle isn’t overly light and the brakes provide smooth progression – something many other electric and hybrid cars can learn a thing or two from. The Single Pedal Control has a smooth application of the brakes when you lift completely off the throttle but, as with all one-pedal driving usage, it’s best just to use it at lower speeds, as it’s quite quick to decelerate at higher speeds. At least the brake lights come on to alert cars behind.
As for the steering, grasping that two-spoke wheel, there’s a reassuring heft at turn-in. Again, it’s not video game-light and hollow, but the E doesn’t corner as eagerly as something like a bantamweight Suzuki Swift or Ford Fiesta (but then it’s really not designed to).
It’s far from completely lifeless to drive like some electric cars at low, obstacle-ridden speeds, but doesn’t exactly hand you excitement on a silver platter, either. What is impressive is that tight turning circle – you’ll be having face-offs with black cabs at The Savoy as to which can do the tightest U-turn. We loved it on our BMW i3 and we love it here. It makes the E a fantastic car in town.
There’s hardly any body roll, owing to the Honda E’s low centre of gravity and 50:50 weight distribution. Although we’d like thicker side bolstering on the well-appointed seats for when we’re whizzing around big roundabouts, the lack of head tilt chucking it around some twisty corners certainly didn’t faze the E one bit.
That’s also due to the suspension set-up; it’s a four-corner MacPherson strut configuration, with geometry and damping that’s been benchmarked against larger cars, with testing project lead Takahiro Shinya opining that ‘the i3 or Leaf is not enough for the target setting in terms of vibration or driving comfort.’ Ouch. And it seems to have worked. The E manages to soak up horrid bumps very well indeed. No thumps or vibrations are let into the cabin, and there’s only the occasional bit of fidgeting depending on the road surface.
Mini Electric vs Honda E vs Peugeot e-208: the CAR Giant Test
Honda E electric range
As you can hopefully tell from our Honda E review, we’re big advocates of the Honda E. It’s fun to drive, modern and super-stylish. But that small battery does dent its appeal.
Its 35.5kWh capacity means the official range is a mere 125 miles (Advance spec) or 137 miles (base model) – but, in line with most electric cars, it won’t easily achieve that in real-world driving. When CAR lived with one for half a year, our testers found it rarely broached 100 miles, limiting its appeal somewhat. That figure is even lower in colder, winter months.
As far as long-range electric cars go, this is definitely not a good choice.
Honda E review: our verdict
The Honda E is one of the most eye-catching electric cars we’ve yet seen. Its dinky size, cute face and properly cool interior are the biggest draws in its charm arsenal, so much so that some might overlook the low-ish available range and the price being higher than other city EVs.
It’s a joy to drive, and Honda has hit the bullseye right out of the box with its first fully electric production car: it handles, rides, steers, stops and goes really sweetly and even turncoat petrolheads will enjoy driving this. It has certainly opened our eyes to how electric cars should drive, even if the range and steep price put us off.
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