With my wife getting back to work and daughter going to the daycare, we’ve realised it’s time to buy a second car. We quickly decided that it has to be something small, not absurdly expensive, but had to look good. The odd dealbreaker for me was Apple CarPlay. Oh, and it also had to be new, I didn’t want for it to spend any time in the repair shop. That way we’ve narrowed it down to Hyundai, Peugeot, and Fiat. All of them had good entry-level options. But after some searching, we’ve started thinking about going electric. We still don’t have any subsidies by the government if you buy an electric car, but there are a couple of perks you can enjoy:
- free parking in Riga
- using bus lanes
- no registration fee or car tax (which would be around 50-150 euros, depending on the car)
- free entrance to Jurmala (which will go from being seasonal to the whole year starting in 2022).
Moreover, recently banks started giving very low-interest rate for a lease and using an electric car seems to be cheaper than a petrol or diesel one (will check on this point at a later date).
After seeing some options, we’ve driven by the Honda dealership and that is where I saw it — Honda e. I saw some photos a couple of years ago, when they presented the prototype. I loved it, but seeing it in person only made those feelings stronger.
We were offered a test-drive and I couldn’t look at any other car after that. I mean, just look at it.
How It Looks — Attention Grabber
The first evening I drove to the city, I was surprised to see everyone looking at me. People were literally stopping and pointing fingers. Cars were driving slower or faster just to drive close and look. Although electric cars are nothing new in Latvia (there are about 1700 of them, mostly BMW i3, Teslas and e-ups), but this one looks like a prototype. Honda even has a tagline for e — “This is not a prototype.” Furthermore, what “helps” is that there are only 3 of them on Latvian roads.
One day, I stopped at the red light and behind me was a Tesla Model X. Someone in the next row was going out of his way to see inside my car, totally ignoring Tesla. That felt weird.
If you like being a centre of attention — this is a car for you. If you want to drive like a madman, ignoring rules and picking your nose — look elsewhere, since you will be very noticeable.
Range
This could be either the biggest weakness of the car, or it will not bother you at all. While making an electric car, Honda looked at the statistics and realised that only 1% of the trips in the UK are longer than a hundred miles. So, in making a city car, they’ve decided — why put a lot of batteries that wouldn’t be used? The result — this car will go somewhere between 160-220 km on a single charge depending on the version, weather, and the wheels you get.
We live a bit outside of town, so our drive to work is about 22 km, with around 8 km on the highway (which kills the battery, by the way). We consistently get 170 km of range, without economy or shutting everything off, just a normal driving with a regenerative braking.
What that means for me personally — I wouldn’t buy this car as the only one in the family, since on a road trip, you won’t get far. But it is perfectly adequate for a drive around a city — going to and from work, running some errands, etc.
It actually changed my thinking about the range already. Our main car is a BMW X3, and it easily can do 1000 km on a full tank, probably that was why I felt nervous when I saw only 200 km left and started looking for a gas station. Now I’m relaxed driving both cars almost to an empty tank / battery. I think it’s a positive change.
Charging
Surprisingly for a Japanese car, it comes with a Type 2 plug, which is the same as in Tesla, Jaguar, VW, BMW, and a lot more. That means that there are plenty of chargers around.
The car itself comes with a home charger — Type 2 on one side and 220V plug on the other. Yes, you just plug it in a normal socket at home and charge it. I don’t know about you, but it blew my mind the first time I plugged it in, and it worked.
Charging from the outlet is the slowest there is. It will take around 19 hours to charge from 0 to 100%. Luckily, you don’t really use it until the battery is empty, so after a day of use, you can charge it in about 5-9 hours.
You can install a wallbox at home, that way you’ll have Type 2 connectors on both sides, and it will allow you to charge from 0 to full in about 6 hours. For cars with larger batteries it is a must-have, but for this one, the outlet charger suffices.
Outside the house there are a couple of choices. There are different chargers, which differ in power and whether they have a plug. We have 2 big chains — Elektrum (from the biggest electric company in the country) and e-mobi (from the government). The first one charges by the kWh charged (no pun intended) and the price is similar to the electricity price at home. The second charges for minutes used and so depending on the power of the charger the price for the full battery will wary very much. Furthermore, to charge with Elektrum ones you’ll have to bring your cable, while e-mobi chargers have them built-in (like a gas pump). I’ve used only e-mobi chargers and the fastest ones available (50 kWh, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use them at the full potential — 0-80% in 30 minutes). It takes about an hour to fully charge Honda e. And the less juice you have left, the faster it will charge.
There are also some free chargers (at the malls, for example), but they are slow (similar to the home charger) and also need a cable.
Screens and technologies
There are 6 screens in the car — 2 for side mirrors, 1 in front of you, 2 entertainment system screens (each 12.3”) and with a flick, a back mirror becomes a screen.
What’s also important for me is, although there are a lot of screens, most of the typical controls are still manual buttons (heating, wipers, etc.). For now, this is the best combination in my opinion. I don’t like how Tesla puts everything on the screen, and I also can’t look at cars that don’t have screens or have a small one for the entertainment system. This is the best of both worlds.
The screens are fine. They could’ve been a better quality or more responsive, but in a day-to-day use I mostly don’t notice. I always have battery information on the farther side and CarPlay on the closest screen.
By the way, although this car supports both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, only CarPlay is wireless and my god it is outstanding.
The process of getting in the car and driving is like non-existent, almost. You come to your car, the handle pops out, you open it, sit, choose D or R on a transmission and just drive. You don’t have to start the car, connect your phone. I know some things have been in cars for years, but the combination just gets you. I was surprised by the wireless CarPlay, since not a lot of cars have it, especially at this price point. But if you can get one — do, it’s not a dealbreaker, but a very nice touch.
There are a lot of cameras in this car, including two instead of mirrors. It took about a day to learn to live with them and one rainy drive on the highway to enjoy and value it. Because the cameras are a bit inside and covered in some water-repellent, the picture in rain stays spotless, you won’t think there is rain just looking at those screens. If your windows are fogged up, you can still see the mirrors. And most importantly — you adjust them once and the picture stays the same however you change the position of your head or whole body. The mirrors are replaced by cameras, mostly to reduce the drag. Since you can make cameras much smaller, it is more efficient, which is important for an EV.
The Advance model also has a 220V outlet (with power of 1500W) in front and HDMI port, so you can plug a TV box or even game console (like PS5) and it will run it with no problems. Although PS5 is an overkill for such small screen, I can see myself plugging a laptop to charge or some classic console to play while charging.
There are also 2 USB-A plugs, one for charging only, the second is for connecting to the entertainment system. Unfortunately, there is no wireless charging, which would be great with the wireless CarPlay.
Driving
It is surprisingly fun to drive. As with all electric cars it instantly goes from the start, unlike many others it keeps going. The Advance version does 0-100 km/h in 8.3 seconds, which of course is no match for Tesla, but still very competitive. Also, according to Honda it has 50/50 weight distribution and since the batteries are all down, this car holds the road like no other. It even has different wheels — the back ones are wider. I’ve gone into some corners with the speed I couldn’t even think of, especially in my SUV.
If one would find a road where it would be legal, one might find out that the top speed is capped at 150 km/h, which is more than enough, since it is actually a city car and such speed will deplete the battery in front your eyes.
Turning radius blew my mind. It is considered one of the smallest there are, losing only to London cabs, but you can definitely feel it on the narrow streets of the Old Town.
Space
This is a good news — bad news type of situation. First, good news — this car is very comfortable for those sitting in front. Because there is no transmission, although the car is small, you have a free space for your knees to go, while driving. Riding in the back is a bit trickier. First, it has two seats (technically 3 people can seat there, but there is no belt in the middle). Second, there is not a lot of legroom, but still, it’s not the smallest one, so for a drive around the city, even passengers in the back will feel okay. It is perfect for children.
What is lacking is a boot space. There is no storage space in the front, since Honda decided to put a charger in the hood and “engineering room” under it. So if you pop the hood, it will look like a normal car without the engine.
The boot itself is small. It holds about 5 shopping bags with groceries the most. You won’t be able to put any kind of stroller there (I actually found only one, by Cybex, which is made for travel, and it folds in a cube).
But again, it is a city car, it has enough space for going to work, shopping and home.
Verdict
I love this car. Occasionally, I just get out of the house in the evening, after getting daughter to bed, and drive to the city. Just for fun.
But it is definitely not for everyone. Before you buy this car, you’ll have to check if it is right for you. This is a city car, mostly for commuting and some short drives. I would say this is a perfect second car. That is how we use it. My wife and I both have hybrid work, so every day one of us goes to the office and the other stays working at home. Whoever goes to the office takes the Honda, since you can get there faster and park for free. And for that, this car is just perfect.
