Featured Fully Charged: Honda e Prototype

It’s a 1977 Civic reborn!

 

This little car gets my attention. Hope it comes to USA soon and the price is low. Cars like this from Honda and others will really take sales away from you know who!

 

I like the styling. No craziness as what has become the norm for the Japanese big three (especially Toyota!). I do NOT like lack of mirrors and am not sure it will pass DOT standards (not sure about that one). Electronics fail, mirrors not so much. If I loose power in the car for some reason, I still want to be able to see enough to roll to safety if possible. No power = no side view image is no bueno!

 

I hate the side and front view. Wouldn't have one if you gave it to me because of function in terms of room, range and looks. Not a car I'd look fondly at as I came up to it.

In some cities and some countries it would be great. But would you want to take a 250 mile trip in it?

 

This car is designed to be an urban vehicle. Hence the small range and physical dimensions. Definitely not for the great American outdoors. Think inner city use case. Not a car for long trips.

 

Would you buy a Model 3? The Honda It a small JDM car. I like the looks, and think it’s better looking then a Model 3.

 

My ex brother-in-law had a 77 back in the day. It was the red/orange color. Man that thing was a rust bucket! Other than that, I kind of liked the looks of it back then.

 

Reminds me of the original Civic. If it is sub $20K with more than 200 miles range, I will buy.

 

No, they won't. If they come to the US, the price for 200+ mile EVs will be over $30k for some time yet, and the cars available will be a fraction of what Tesla can annually make of the Model 3. even if the other manufacturers wanted to make and sell more than a few ten thousand BEVs a year, their production will likely be constrained by battery supply. And after all that, they won't have a Supercharger network, and the CHEdeMO and CCS ones will behind that for years.

250 miles is over kill for such a car though. 150 to 200 miles would be more than plenty, and lower the price.

 

it may very well canabalize SOME car sales ..... maye .... in its size category



Maybe .... yea, no - probably not even there ...

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looks strangely like
Honda 99 - Wikipedia
or even
Honda 02 - Wikipedia
thinking Joe Walsh "Decades"

 

Kudos to honda for designing an urban bev from the ground up, using their knowledge from the clarity bev and probably the smart ed. My city has special parking spaces for smart twofour car2go including the smart ed, and it should work well. This is really targeted to harder to park in cities likely Japan, China, and western europe.

Which Are The Cheapest EVs To Own?

This is a 200 km WLTP range car, likely slightly less than 100 miles on the epa range test. I expect it will be only sold in a limited number of states but probably more than the clarity electric, and might replace it in the US market.
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Its an urban car, it will charge at L2 chargers in the US. I expect it may do well in japan though, and who knows cheap enough it could grab sales in china and western europe. No competition to tesla though, its probably less competition than a honda fit is to the bmw 3 series. As battery tech improves I expect honda will put higher capacity batteries in the design, so who knows in 2026 it could have a 150 mile epa range ;-)

 

(sigh)
at least in the U.S.A. drivers are going crazy BIG.
even so, should it be uber el cheapo .... it 'may' stand a 1 in 10 chance in making it . . . . but with virtually all manufacturers killing off so many of their various sedan models (even very NICE sedans, like the Prius V?!? ... big mistake imo) it's a snowball's chance - that something uber puny like this Honda will even stand a chance. Maybe - it's under $10k ??? maybe.
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Those small size SUVs seem to be doing okay here. Though their hatch space looks smaller than what my Sonic had.