At $25k in the US this would have been amazing. It reminded me of the Nissan Pike cars from the 90s. As it is, it just showed that Honda doesn’t understand EVs or EV buyers.
Lol.
At least they were smart enough to not even try selling that overpriced toy in the USA.
Well yeah, there are only about 350,000,000 people in the USA. I am sure it would have been impossible to find a few thousand people who liked it enough to buy one.
The similar Mazda MX-30 is available for sale here. It sold 571 in the last 2 years.
https://insideevs.com/news/679331/mazda-discontinue-mx30-us/
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Didnt every single Honda electrified car get discontinued within a single generation including cars like the Insight, fit, accord and civic. Sure, eventually honda teases people by eventually rebrand a car to bring it back the electrified cat, but its almost like clockwork that honda will discontinue whatever hybrid/ev they make in 3-5 years.
I am sad to see the Honda e’s demise before it could really be appreciated. I understand it was never priced to sell, so it is a failure. But I nevertheless really liked the design (both exterior and interior), and the motif (small city car).
I hope that this isn’t taken as a signal arguing against those two attributes (its size and design). I believe it would have done well had the costs been lower, and the resulting price had reflected that.
I would be all over something like this as a second car if it were $25K or thereabouts.
the resulting price had reflected that
For the right price, everything can be sold.
Honda really messed up with the Honda e. Too expensive, and the range is unacceptably short. The car is beautiful inside and out, but I’d never recommend it to anyone due to the price and nonexistent range.
Cool car, but good as a second car - and I‘m not gonna spend 39k on that when there‘s a used i3 for 15k
I almost bough one…
Damn shame, this was one of the few EVs that a decent number of ICE drivers seemed interested in. Once again the the value for money ratio was daft.
Another “compliance car”, Honda never intended to make a success out of it.
the honda clarity in america has a similar issue. by all accounts, if you can live with the gimpy range it’s a well made vehicle but honda has no intention of making a mass market EV like the BYD seal.
The Honda E is a high-effort car in every respect except the powertrain. It’s highly demonstrable of how far behind they are with EV tech.
They’ll gladly make an example of it though: “See? No one wants to buy small hatchbacks anymore. We’re going to exclusively make 7-seater SUVs with high profit margins now.”
It wasn’t a compliance car, that term is used for the EVs released in the US/California to get fleet mileages up. The Honda e was a “city” car intended to compete it the same market as the original BMW i3 and Renault Zoe.
It probably wasn’t expected to earn a profit but was an effort to learn the technology.
Sadly I think you’re right that it was never intended to be a success. But nevertheless, I really enjoy the design and size. I hope companies don’t misinterpret its failure.
Given how distinctive it is and the short run it’s having, I reckon these will end up as collector’s items.
Good point. If I were a car collector, I would definitely keep an eye open for one to add to the collection. Even as a non-collector, every time I see the interior photos I think, “wow, what a great little car.”
The draw of a small car is a small price. 39k isnt small. Add to that a pretty small range and yeah… Not surprised it didnt sell well. It couldnt compete with cars in its price range, and it couldnt compete with cars in its class. A shame, but not a surprise.
The draw of a small car is a small price
…and easier to find street parking.
…and easier to fit in all types of garages and parking lots.
…and less weight to damage your driveway and public roads.
…and easier/less stressful to maneuver on narrow streets.
…and nimbler and more responsive to drive.
…and higher efficiency with lower refuel costs.
…and better for the environment with less materials used and less emissions created.
…and better visibility with smaller blind spots.
…and safer for everyone around you, less likely to crash, and less fatal if you do crash.
Good points actually. But those are things you need to think about first. Price is an immediate, obvious benefit. :)
It’s so cute tho 😭
39k??!! What are they smoking… ugh, it’s so cool looking, wish we had them in the states (at a reasonable cost).
In Portugal the prices start at 47k usd for the base model…
I was screaming at Honda for this car. Finally said fuck it and got a Model Y, and got one of the first CyberTrucks on pre order. Honda you suck, and this car brought back childhood memories, we could have had something.
Good luck with your truck then.
What a cute car though!!
You’re forgetting the small 46kW charge rate - so you’re not recharging very fast when you inevitably don’t get very far.
It’s such a cute, quirky, utterly perplexing car.
Japanese companies seem to have a really hard time grasping what Europeans or North Americans want from EVs.
Japanese companies are largely still in the hydrogen camp
Which is going so well for them
I mean, true, but a small charge rate isnt that big of an issue if the battery is also small. It just gets difficult if the two dont match up well. That said, at that price, they couldve added that small QoL thing…
Well yes and no. A poor charge rate on a small battery means it will probably charge, from a SoC perspective, as fast as a bigger vehicle with a faster charge rate…but it’s adding effective range more slowly - and considering you need to stop more frequently, it compounds the disadvantage.
True. Though it only becomes a problem with longer travel distances, where youd require more than one stop to charge. And at that point, the size of the battery is a larger annoyance I reckon.
You’re forgetting the small 46kW charge rate
And that’s only up to 60% or so; the charging curve is unfortunately quite poor.
Ye olde Smart Car problem:
“Wow, that’s a cute little car, must’ve been pretty cheap, huh?”
“Nah, it was $30K. Same as a Honda Civic, with a quarter the space and none of the bells and whistles.”
“…”
Honda are costliest bare bones car you can buy
Also, “it must get great gas mileage”, nope 36mpg (EPA rating in the US). Worse than my Ford fiesta at the time which was 14k (back in 2014).
I don’t know how they fucked up the efficiency. The EV version is also terrible at 16.1 kWh/ 100 km. It should be easy to get much lower than that with such a light car. Maybe the onboard inverter is too inefficient?
Even at that price they were still making a loss, they didn’t want to sell any. A compliance car and nothing else.
Not sure about making a loss, thatd depend on how you calculate it… Fully agreed on compliance car though.
I don’t think the Honda e was a compliance car, since compliance cars were a thing for the US/California market and the Honda e was never sold here.
It was more a “city car” in the vein of the original BMW i3 BEV, the i3 had about an 80km range when introduced. It was never considered a compliance car.
It’s a lifestyle car. The people who buy stuff like this want it when it’s new. The enthusiasm for a pure lifestyle product drops after a few years.
I don’t know about that, used BMW i3s are pretty popular.
I like the design but that’s all it has. 42k€ for 222km combined WLTP is bad, nowadays you get double the battery for that price.
In fact, next year youll get 150% of the battery at half its price. Which is just bonkers…
FFS, Nissan Leafs have more range and more room for less money. Yes, not as hi-tech, but come on, Honda?
Leaf be ugly though.
Newest leaf looks good. Previous one… kinda fishy ngl.
new leaf is actually not horrible to look at.
Eh, it’s ugly-pretty, and not cute-overload.
I have one, got a great deal on it, it’s not the best EV in most categories but it’s fun, and nice and cool looking with lots of tech…
I very much enjoy it but it’s a shame it’s not getting newer versions anytime soon