Reasons to get the Honda E

[MaXPainT]

With almost 20k km of owning the Honda E, I would like to make a list of all the good things (all the bad things can be found in this forum already ) the Honda E has to offer.
If you are considering getting the E instead of another EV, this list might help to justify your unreasonable desire

-No excessive beeping - many cars including the newest EVs (especially Chinese EVs) beep too much. You get into the car it beeps, lane assist beeps, you don't use the handbrake before leaving the car it sounds like a red alert (looking at you Peugeot e-208). This is not the case with the E as it only beeps when it must
-Fast to start driving - you sit in the car press the brake pedal and off you go. It takes about 5 seconds from when your butt touches the car to when you can actually drive. With many other EVs you must press the start engine button and do other manipulations to start going. Same with ending your drive - when you are done, you get out and lock the car - no need to sing a lullaby for it.
-No driver's nanny - the Honda E trusts you with driving it and doesn't have a camera that is constantly watching you (again, very common in Chinese cars). Only the wife is allowed to tell you to look at the road!
-No piano black interior - other than the steering wheel and the screens, leaving your fingerprints on the E's interior is difficult. As if the designers were actually thinking not only about marketing material but also about people driving the car.
-No gear lever - honestly, I don't know why a lever sticking in the way of everything is still a thing in EVs. Honda E has large nice buttons.

-Physical buttons and knobs for climate and volume control - yet again, a large touch screen with digital buttons looks very nice in brochures. Then you get to drive the car in winter with your gloves on and find out that you have to take off your glove and look at the screen to adjust your butt warmer. Not an issue in the E - you can adjust your but warmer with your knee!
-Automatic wipers with speed adjustments - in so many cars the speed of the wipers is always either too slow (first speed) or too fast (second speed). In the E you can adjust the speed with a dial and have it in the exact speed you want it. A small thing that matters.
-Digital side mirrors - the E uses cameras instead of side mirrors. After using it for more than a year I don't want to go back to the conventional mirrors. The view is clear no matter how dirty/wet/frosty/foggy your side window is and with the wide view angle I can see more than with a regular conventional mirror.
-Charging port in the center - is the right side the wrong side and the left side the right side? With the E it doesn't matter! The port is in the center so you will always be able to reach it with any charger configuration.

I could add some more subjective features such as the driving dynamics, with the 50/50 weight distribution, the macpherson suspension, the funky exterior, and the rarity of the car, but let's leave it at that

Feel free to add the reasons that made you get the E instead of any other EV

[Verone]

Taking delivery of mine has been a full scale nine month long saga that's about to come to an end with me getting the keys before the end of this month, and it'll be 100% worth it. The delays are entirely my own fault, but it's been a long wait nevertheless.

I had one on test for a while last Easter, and have a couple of friends who have bought them, and everyone has said the same - the press-bemoaned high price is well worth paying for the quality of car that you get. Yes, it's a first generation of car so there are some niggles here and there, but the car is fantastic to drive, loaded with tech, and superbly built, as is expected from Honda. The range, for the vast majority of people, is also just not an issue.

All the points in your post above are valid and are great, but there's a more important reason for me that takes precedent over everything else.

So many EV companies try to market that you're saving the planet by buying an EV, completely discounting the fact that manufacture of a battery pack even for a PHEV means that you need to drive the car for upwards of a quarter million kilometres to break even in terms of environmental damage done by battery production. Then you couple this with the fact that most EV users are charging from a traditional power grid, which is heavily biased toward power generation through non-renewables or good old fossil fuels, and it just makes the situation even worse, driving that offset in terms of kilometres driven to break even into higher numbers.

Then you look at most EV manufacturers in terms of their hardware, who are cramming a 70-90kWh battery into their chassis to try to appeal to the mass market. This is because most car buyers are entirely uneducated about owning an EV and won't do the research, so they're 100% fixated on single-charge range being the overriding decisionmaker on buying an electric car. Most observers don't realise that they have a device in their pocket that they regularly charge when they're not using it, and it's become so commonplace to do so that it's just become part of their daily schedule.

Then for my personal circumstances, I look at the Honda e.

Smaller battery, less manufacturing overhead in terms of environmental damage, large amount of recycled materials used in production, and living in Iceland means I'll be charging it from a power grid that runs on 100% renewable energy - mainly geothermal and hydroelectric, with a hint of wind and solar in there. The kicker is that the charging infrastructure is relatively good here, and is only getting better over time, with massive investment from several energy companies and new rapid chargers popping up all the time.

For me, given that I intend to keep the car for the long term, probably 10+ years if all goes well, it's a hugely compelling package that's on offer.

I've been a horrendous petrolhead ever since I was a kid, and If you'd asked me 5 years ago whether I'd be driving an EV, I'd have said "probably when I'm in my 60s or 70s". Turns out, I'm 38 and about to get into my first one.

I think for me it's the combination of the environmental benefits, plus the fact that while you have to really drive it and throw it about to experience it, the Honda e takes me back to memories of short, squat 80s and 90s hot hatches. Cars like the early Golf GTIs, the 205/106 GTIs, the Vauxhall/Opel Nova/Corsa GTE and GSI and others that didn't have massive amounts of power and weren't particularly fast, but when you threw them into corners on country roads they were like go karts that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

It's just a super fun all rounder, thrown into a super clean looking, tech infused package that for city driving and the occasional short jaunt into the country, makes total sense.

[ZoeDave]

Agree with all the points made so far, though perhaps the side cameras should have been heated for those high-condensation days.

Here goes a few points from me:

1. Apart from arguably the battery, very little compromises were made in bringing the car to production. Honda didn't reskin a Jazz, put drum brakes on the rear, wind-up windows in the back or delete one of the boot struts to save a few hundred yen. I've said before that my dream car is a Rolls-Royce at 1/3 of the size and 1/3 of the price, and bizarrely a Honda fit the bill better than any other car I could find. Of course that's also why very few have bought the car, because I can guess that the high spec and bespoke parts make it not a cheap car to build.

2. The rear seats are actually usable! And that's with a boot that I can (usually) get my shopping into. As someone who almost never has more than one passenger, I still think it's better than a 2+2.

3. I don't think the tartanesque grey fabric gets as much love as it deserves. I splurged for the leather, but there's a lot of it still and it's lovely. I suspect though that those a little older who had cars from the 60s/70s might wonder what I'm on about.

4. The heated steering wheel. Plenty of 'awesome features' in cars turn out to be a gimmick that you don't use, but this is the complete opposite for me. Not the absolute best implementation as the rear heats better than the front, but most cars in this size/price don't have it.

5. The design. It has won numerous awards and it's still the poster child for Honda UK as the picture you click on to go to their cars website. Even the designer of the modern Mini and Fiat 500 thought it was great. I'm not aware of any other concept car looking so different, but being so clean in its look and getting to production with so little changed. It's definitely a future classic, and the regrettably low sales volume only increases that.

Love the thread, please add more!

[upsilon]

Agree on the driving dynamics, it's a fun car. Having owned models like Honda EG6, Alfa Romeo 147 and Alfa Romeo Brera, the E has many plus points combined; corners like a lightweight hot hatch but yet very planted due to it's weight at the same time.

[Malcs]

My memories turned back to the hot hatch era when I first bought my e. Not one to normally carry out mods on my cars but after 2 years of deliberation I widened the track and the turn in has improved no end. Looks bad ass.

I know spacers have been talked about before on here and hope I’m not repeating info but can recommend these guys;

[londiniumperson]

My memories turned back to the hot hatch era when I first bought my e. Not one to normally carry out mods on my cars but after 2 years of deliberation I widened the track and the turn in has improved no end. Looks bad ass.

I know spacers have been talked about before on here and hope I’m not repeating info but can recommend these guys;

That answers a question/concern that was brought up on another thread about using a 20mm spacer width.
The 17” wheels have an offset that enable 20mm spacers to be fitted on the front. Though as with the standard 16” wheels, 25mm spacers need to be fitted on the rear for those with the 17” wheels.

[Fakeplasticman]

Been looking into the NY-1 which keeps the E's interface based on the pics, probably next year as it will have been 3 years then I will have had my E.

I have to say, if it hadnt gone up in price so much, I'd probably buy it again.

I absolutely love the wee thing, its as if it was made specifically for me and I genuinely enjoy driving it.

[Verone]

My memories turned back to the hot hatch era when I first bought my e. Not one to normally carry out mods on my cars but after 2 years of deliberation I widened the track and the turn in has improved no end. Looks bad ass.

I know spacers have been talked about before on here and hope I’m not repeating info but can recommend these guys;

That answers a question/concern that was brought up on another thread about using a 20mm spacer width.
The 17” wheels have an offset that enable 20mm spacers to be fitted on the front. Though as with the standard 16” wheels, 25mm spacers need to be fitted on the rear for those with the 17” wheels.

There's also a follow up video where they drop a customer's car on the stock 17s too and add the 25mm spacers all around.



Looks absolutely great!