City EV is a 21st century digital toy

The Honda e is a stylish urban runaround with range and value issues, writes Matt Allan

I’ll be honest from the outset. The Honda e is not a car aimed at someone like me who lives in the country and has a family of five to ferry around.

It’s for people who live and drive in urban environments and never have to transport more than a vente macchiato and a pain au chocolat. It’s a teeny tiny city car with a teeny tiny range, head-turning looks and an emphasis on style over substance.

The e is up against two retro megastars – the Mini Electric and Fiat 500. It shares some of their oldschool inspired aesthetic but with a more modern high-tech twist. Some might find its cuteness overpowering but against the Mini and Fiat it feels suitably in tune.

The interior follows a similar pattern. With its big clear physical controls, gloss plastic and wood trim, it has a 1970s hi-fi vibe but undercuts that with a full-width digital screen setup that screams 21st century. It also screams “trying too hard” and the interface and menu system is an ugly mess.

Thankfully the rest of the cabin is better resolved with a simple user-friendly feel and neat touches. It also feels pleasingly robust, with a sturdiness often missing from city cars.

If you were in any doubt that the e is a city car, a glance at the two rear seats will convince you. Like the Mini and Fiat, there’s very little space and they are really for emergency use only. At least, unlike the other two, the e features rear doors to make access easier. The boot a megre 171 litres.

Beneath the boot lies the e’s motor which in the more powerful Advance spec produces 152bhp. That’s plenty and provides a pleasingly punchy performance, especially in the cut and thrust of a traffic-clogged city. That reardrive setup also helps with the e’s agility and comically tight turning circle.

In the battle of the three electric city cars, the Honda is more powerful than the Fiat but loses out to the Mini. And it lags behind both in terms of range. With just 35.5kWh of capacity, the e is has an

official range of 137 miles, compared with 145 for the

Mini and 199 for the Fiat.

That tiny battery means the e is more vulnerable to the impact of things like driving style and weather. Around town and with access to home charging, that’s not a big deal but it significantly limits the e’s use outside those narrow parameters, as does its restricted passenger and boot space.

That wouldn’t be the end of the world if the e was priced close to a regular city car but with a starting price of £36,865 for the Advance it’s shockingly expensive.

The e is the kind of car that will appeal to buyers that are happy to drop hundreds of pounds on a tiny designer handbag or a pair of shoes that you can only walk 20 yards in. Impractical but unarguably stylish.