Honda’s Electric Supermini Confirmed As ‘Honda E’

Honda has confirmed that its new electric supermini will simply be called ‘e’. At its Geneva 2019 launch it had been called the ‘e prototype’.

In a world of unnecessary punctuation and weird capitalisation, the single lower case letter will add to motoring hacks’ woes when it comes to writing attractive prose, but it was chosen because it distils the car’s reason for being and reflects its minimalist but head-turning design.

The dinky rear-wheel drive EV goes on sale later this year, complete with full-width digital dashboard, cameras in place of door mirrors and a driving range of around 125 miles. Honda even calls the rear-driven e ‘sporty,’ which piques our interest.

With a single-speed transmission the e will be easy as pie to drive around town, aided by the replacement of a traditional gear lever with a series of buttons for drive, neutral, park and reverse. The handbrake is electrically actuated, naturally.

Other points of interest around the simple but effective design are flush door handles (a nightmare in sub-zero temperatures because they freeze shut), smart device charging ports and steering wheel-mounted menu controls.

The e’s price has not yet been confirmed but Honda claims to have taken almost 6500 UK-based expressions of interest through its website. Honda has previously confirmed the e’s price will fall between the Renault Zoe and the BMW i3, so we predict a cost upwards of £24,000.