Plantagenet wrote:The Honda E, a very cute EV city car, is now available for pre-order in Europe. It looks a little like a Fiat 500.
honda-e
With a range of ca. 125 miles its designed mainly for urban driving and commuting. Very small cars like the Honda E are very popular in Europe but I don't know if Honda is planning to release the Honda E in the US where most people want larger cars and trucks.
Cheers!
A small, reliable BEV with limited range might well appeal to me as little as I drive. At least as my main daily car to putter around town.
But I'd want it to be cheap, to reflect the lack of range, compared to an ICE or HEV.
Instead I see things like the Honda Clarity Electric BEV with a 89 mile estimated range. (So more like 40 or 50 mile range safely, once several years old and in bad weather). And it STARTS at $36,620, or over 150% as much as I've ever spent on a new car. (Seems like a weird choice by Honda, when the Clarity PHEV is rated at 47 miles on battery only with NO range anxiety, and starting at over $3000 less).
Looking at the Honda E and seeing its estimated range at 200 km, or about 125 miles, I'll bet it retails for over $30K to start in the US. And with that range, I'd still need to rent a car for various day trips I make. (Since 125 miles might be less than 100ish real world miles and getting stuck on the highway and having to be towed in isn't acceptable to me. Nor is running the battery down to almost empty, and shortening its life.)
If I were in the market soon, I think I'd rather look at the 2020 Corolla Hybrid from $22,950, vs. the Honda E. Again, no range anxiety, and Corollas and the Prius HEV have been great cars.