THE GOOD OIL

We glumly reported a few weeks back that the latest images of Honda’s sensational wee Urban EV Concept suggested the car was to lose much of the diminutive retro styling that made it such a sensation at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show.

More recent pre-production pics showed the disguised-butalmost-ready-for-manufacture version of the car to be a bit dumpier, a bit less angular and, in general, just a bit blander looking than the old-school aesthetic that the original concept car teased.

Without any official shots, the jury remains out on the Urban EV’s exterior styling. Fingers are crossed that the camouflage that test mules have been dressed in for real-world outings is so effective as to completely cheat what lies beneath.

But — and speaking of what lies beneath — a “close-to-production” sketch of the Urban EV’s dashboard has surfaced. It promises much retro-tastic design detail. And a wooden shelf.

The final version of Honda’s allelectric city car will be unveiled at the Geneva motor show next month. But an image of a screen-dominated cockpit with a decidedly thin steering wheel reignited hopes of cheeky nods throughout the car to that firstgeneration Civic, which it reminded us so strongly of when first revealed.

The interior is unlike anything else in the Honda family at present and consists of a series of screens side by side along the dash. The screens at left and right are for the cameras proposed to replace wing mirrors.

Underneath this, a minimalist wooden shelf-style panel appears to protrude along the upperside of the dashboard. Again, very Honda Civic EB2.

Oh, and one final nugget. The render of the car in the “percentage-of-charge” graphic on one of the screens appears to feature the sharp-edged silhouette of the original concept.

Maybe the production version won’t be as bulky as those spy shots suggest. Or maybe any car looks cool with a glowing green battery pack and aggressive 22in cartoon wheels.