The Honda e, released in Europe earlier this month, is an electric car aimed at city driving.

The Honda e first appeared in concept form in 2017 as the ‘Urban EV’. This was followed by the near-production ready Honda e Prototype, which received international acclaim at the 2019 Geneva motor show. The production-ready car was given its full global premiere at the Frankfurt motor show last year.

The e features an electric motor at the rear, offering a power output of either 100- or 113kW. 

The high-capacity 35.5 kWh battery provides a range of 222 km (WLTP), with 80 per cent of charge added in just 30 minutes of rapid charging.

The model will only be sold in Europe and Japan, where it goes on sale in late October. Honda expects annual sales of only around 10,000 in Europe, and 1000 at home, where it will also introduce the model into its car-sharing fleet.

Here is what the motoring writers think about it.

Top Gear

The British magazine and website gave it 8/10.

“It’s Honda’s first mass-market, pure-electric car (yes, Honda dabbled with the EV Plus in 1997, but only around 350 of those were ever built), and we want one. 

Honda clearly isn’t going Tesla chasing with this one, the dimensions are Fiat 500-plus-a-bit, wider than a Jazz but actually narrower when you take into account it has no wing mirrors. This is very much an urban runaround. The chassis has been shown some of Honda’s handling love and a configurable driving experience mean it’s not out of its depth if you fancy a ‘proper’ drive… and have the battery to spare. 

As standard you get cameras for wing mirrors and the rear view mirror, 100kW DC rapid charging capability in 30 mins, an app to pre-condition the car and babysit it while it charges, many crash avoidance systems (including auto braking, adaptive cruise, lane keep assist, auto high-beam headlights) and several acres of screen. And all this wrapped in a subtly retro colour and material pallet designed to chime with the cheeky exterior – available in white, black, grey, blue and highlighter yellow paint.

The Honda e arrives riding a wave of new small, affordable EVs, at last broadening the choice beyond the longer-range, but more premium and pricey stuff like Teslas, the Jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-tron. Honda is up against the new Peugeot e-208, the Mini Electric and the Renault Zoe and banking on customers seeing past its chunky price and skinny range, and buying with their hearts not their heads.”

Carwow

An AutoMuse favourite from the UK says it “looks like a CCTV control centre inside and a surprised panda outside”.

“The all-electric Honda e is a bit like a reality TV celebrity. Under the bright lights at its concept reveal it looked a million dollars, but in the cold light of day, with its pyjamas on, shuffling to the off licence, the production version doesn’t have quite the same impact.

Still, it’s a good attempt, and certainly more visually interesting on the outside than the vast majority other small EVs on sale right now, including the Renault Zoe, Mini Electric and even BMW i3.

Inside the impact is no less dramatic. There’s a screen for everything in there, and while it’s a bit 90s in overall design, you can’t accuse it of being boring. No sir.

Two of the screens somewhere in the middle handles the car’s infotainment system, plus there is a set of digital dials for the driver and another screen each side that display the digital door mirror images.

Lots of screens then, but this isn’t a car designed for lots of people. A couple of adults will be fine in the front, but not in the back, although, of course, if you have two young children, they’ll be fine. The boot, though, is tiny – really only good enough for a weekend away, without folding the rear seats down.”

Auto Car UK

The UK publication gave it 4.5/5.

“Its new platform provides allround independent suspension with a MacPherson strut at each corner; dynamically, Honda has targeted much larger cars. For rolling comfort, smoothness and refinement, the E succeeds where others have not.

There is a catch, of course. This is a compact car – 3.9m long – that can be so only because it has a small energy store. While almost every manufacturer strives to fit a capacity of 60kWh or more, the Honda e has a liquid-cooled battery pack of just 35.5kWh between its axles. 

The E’s motor is at its rear, beneath a high boot floor, but any space that might have remained under the bonnet is taken up by an inverter and associated gubbins. This leaves the car short on space inside. Boot capacity is just 171 litres with the rear bench in place, while the back seats themselves don’t give much leg room (there will be some leg-splaying for adult passengers) and the pair in the front are short of squab.

On the upside, all four seats, along with the rest of the trim, are really nicely finished. I’d happily have a waistcoat made from the tweedy-looking seat fabric, while there’s some wood trim across a relatively flat dashboard that features a mix of retro-styled flatness and a broad array of digital screens.”

Driving Electric

“The Honda e doesn’t feel as fast as rivals like the BMW i3 but it's more than quick enough to take advantage of the fun, assertive way it peels through corners and dispatches awkward car parks. There are seven levels of brake regeneration – four in the car’s standard mode, and three within the single-pedal driving mode that’s designed to enable you to drive around town using the accelerator alone, rather than the brake pedal.

The sheer number of modes seems like overkill, but the fact that they’re controlled by paddles on the steering wheel makes it easy to change the level and also means you can scrub speed off in the same way that you might downshift in an automatic petrol or diesel car.

Natural-feeling yet light steering is a real highlight of the Honda, which encourages you to swing through tight corners and roundabouts in order to take advantage of its tiny 8.6-metre turning circle. There’s a real cheekiness to the way the e handles that’s great for making bad roads and traffic more enjoyable than they have any right to be, so we’d say it’s the best city car to drive through the urban sprawl.

It’s fun outside the city, too, where the rear-wheel-drive setup still delivers plenty of grip and you have enough confidence in the Honda’s performance and cornering ability to enjoy a country road or feel safe and secure on the motorway. 

Over patchy road surfaces the Honda feels a little jiggly, but when you hit a bigger bump, the thud never arrives since the suspension softens the blow. The ride is more settled at higher speeds, but it’s certainly not busy or nervous around town. It’s more comfortable than pretty much any petrol-powered supermini on sale today – and a lot quieter, too.”