Honda Urban EV spied: exciting but underwhelming

Ah, Honda. You had one job to do . . . The Honda Urban EV concept shown off a couple of years back was perhaps one of the coolest concept cars to come out of a Japanese car giant in a decade. It was simple and retro-looking, with clean hatchback-y lines, thin pillars and the unmistakable vibe of early Honda Civic and even firstgen Volkswagen Golf about it.

Praise be, Honda even stipulated little would change when the car eventually goes into production in 2019.

Well, the manufacturer appears to have kept its word as far as the launch date goes. The production version of the Honda Urban EV does indeed look on track to make an appearance next year. And look, we’re still excited about the diminutive city car’s arrival. But the first spy shots of disguised prototypes testing out in the real world are underwhelming. It looks like many of the elements that made the concept great will be watered down. For a start, the car seen out in the wild this week anyway is a five-door, meaning the short wheelbase of the three-door concept has been stretched out. Those thin a-pillars have gone, as have all those flat surfaces. The car looks dumpier; more like an Audi A1 or – ugh – Nissan Micra than the retro-tastic silhouette the show car exhibited.

We do applaud Honda for appearing to stick with the idea of door-mounted cameras replacing rear vision mirrors.

This feature is bolstered by a single shot of the interior (through a firmly closed driver’s side window) that shows little monitors bookending each side of the dashboard. Far more lowtech but no less cool, the doors appear to be frameless, too. It looks like the big round headlights of the concept car remain as well, so well done Honda on that score.

What does the rest of it look like? We’ll have to wait until next year to find out. We hope a few further nods to the amazing Urban EV concept car remain underneath all that camouflage tape.