Honda’s little beauty
Remember when Suzuki upstaged all the big guns at the Paris motor show a couple of years back with their simple little retro- themed Ignis concept? Another Japanese manufacturer — Honda this time — appears to have done it again.
Because while all the trendy driving shoe- wearing elitists were salivating over the sleek body panel soft he 745 kW MercedesA MG Project One hyper carat last week’s Frankfurt motor show, we couldn’t take our eyes off Honda’s diminutive Urban EV Concept.
A bit like the Suzuki from a couple of years back, the Urban EV Concept has a not- at- all- subtle retro through- line to its exterior design. With its short wheelbase, thin a- pillars, sloping hatchback rear end and little round headlights, it’s every bit the 21st Century reincarnation of the original 1970s Honda Civic.
Utterly different to anything that has come before, however, is the giant interactive touchscreen that stretches almost from one side of the dashboard to the other. It’s a big slab of high- tech jewellery inside an otherwise stripped- back cabin. Natural wood surfaces also make an appearance in the concept car, lending it an eco- air.
The rearview mirrors have been replaced with cameras; but then it’s a motor show concept car, so you probably anticipated that. The show car also features rear- hinged doors, which might seem a little outlandish, but to be honest — EuroNCAP safety testing aside — could end up on the real thing.
There are two really exciting bits to this story. The first is that Honda reckons a production version will be ready by 2019. It will be a pure electric vehicle, like the concept, and will also be their first BEV model. The other exciting thing is that Honda says there won’t be many changes to the production version from what we see on the concept.
Okay, there’s no way a production car will feature the interactive display in the front grille of the Frankfurt show car ( which Honda says lets drivers share messages with one another on the road), but other than that we’re looking at what should be a pretty awesome wee EV.
Wee? Yeah, this is 100mm shorter than the Jazz.
No mention of battery output, power, range or charge times yet. But quite frankly, the Urban EV Concept has already won us over with its retro- futuristic, micromachine charms.