TECH INSIDER | HONDA E
Urban
planning
1
1. Many functions can
be selected from the
touchscreen dashboard,
including variable
regenerative braking and
a sport driving mode
WORDS: ALEX GRANT
WHaving piqued the interest of
car enthusiasts the world over
with its Mk1 Civic-inspired
Urban EV concept 18 months
ago, Honda used the Geneva Motor Show to
preview a prototype of the production version,
which is due within months. Complete enough
that it featured parking sensors, the e Prototype
offered a clearer view of what to expect from the
company’s bespoke, scalable EV platform and
all-new drivetrain within it.
Development of the Honda e (the new
name for the model) city car was led by
Japan, alongside the concept version, and
prototypes are undergoing final evaluation as
start of production looms closer. According to
large project lead, Kohei Hitomi, the project
benchmarked Europe’s best-selling models,
particularly the Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe and
BMW i3, and engineers studied the region’s
cities to get a feel for the environment they
were tailoring it to.
12 // July 2019 // www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com
This “scene hunting” informed a different
approach to its rivals. “We believe an EV
will not be a one-to-one replacement of a
conventional powertrain, customers will have
a different usage. Looking at our competitors,
everyone is extending the autonomous range
for pure EV driving, which makes the car bigger,
heavier and more expensive. This is exactly
what we didn’t target,” he explains.
“We wanted a car that was very practical
in city use, and that base concept has always
European cities informed some unusual thinking
for Honda’s fi rst ground-up electric vehicle platform, which
is looking to transform the landscape for urban-going EVs
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