Honda Urban EV

I present… Le Car.

R

le yes please.
:slight_smile:

That is a very fun, eclectic, overly Japanese but with a good sense of stance and proportion. The design is still generic enough to act like a platform vehicle to customize for different markets. I always like a bit more originality where you stretch the limits of what can be an electric car. Tesla leaving out the grille while still hinting at it being one example, or a reference to large venturi tunnels on the front as we see on solar cars. This is very refreshing.

  1. Le Car is a great example of a name or language ruining something. I always associated the Le Car with crappy cheap unreliable cars. Then I read about the Renault 5 in French and was a big fan. In my head, they are still two different cars.

  2. No way that it gets to production. I don’t think there is enough room in the $30k compact car market for more than just Mini. If they made this for $16k, I’m sure it would look horrible.

On the other hand, if enough people like this, it might make them change their design language. I remember the Dodge Neon was supposed to have rectangular headlights, but after showing the concept, Lee Iacocca told the engineering team that they had to make the round headlights work. So, concepts do shift perceptions.

Last, when I think small Japanese cars, I think of kei cars with tiny wheel and tires. Cartoony.

I’d like to see a little more dorky in this concept.

Something like this Honda could be a good competitor for the FIAT 500 in addition to the Mini.

And then there’s this…

R

Wow! I’ve never seen that! I love it.

I love it. I really hope this drives (no pun intended) some of the automotive design away from overly styled, massive objects. I will admit I am a little sad about the rise in autonomous vehicles, mostly due to the possible loss of driving culture, if that happens.

We will become like those people who still ride horses for fun. Not gone completely but a small sub culture.

I’ll believe autonomous driving when I see it en masse.

selfdriving.JPG

LOVE this Honda concept as well. Total opposite end of the spectrum from a lot of the over-styled stuff that’s out there. Aesthetically, it looks like more of a product than a vehicle, if that makes sense. Inspired by consumer products more than cars. Very cool.

Please. Just bring the Element back, and add a third seat to the back. That is all.

where it comes from: No Reserve: 1972 Honda N600 for sale on BaT Auctions - sold for $3,200 on February 16, 2018 (Lot #8,179) | Bring a Trailer

That engine is so tiny! You can tell it was among their first cars. Wow, is that basic!

Pretty much production… it looks better in the round. If I try to forget that the concept ever existed I can start to like it… I just wish it was closer to the concept. It might never come to the US anyway and the range is still not enough. They said they limited the range to under 200 miles because their research shows most people don’t drive that much in a day. I’m sure research would show most people don’t drive off road but SUVs still sell like hotcakes. This is the danger of not triangulating behavior and desire in research.

Pretty good interpretation from concept to reality in my mind. The details changed but frankly it was so well done it took me a minute to even realize they added two more doors!

The surfacing definitely picked up a bit more fluidity along the way, but it feels refined in a positive way, not in a “oh they had to do this for crash safety” way like I feel when I see a modern mini cooper.

EV’s like this always have a weird spot in my mind - in that they would make great city cars but cities still fail at having infrastructure for EV’s. What good is a city car you can’t park randomly outside your apartment?

Tesla’s “Rich guy first” approach really worked well for them in that sense - helped them build out the long range network of superchargers because the people who bought them had a lot more money and there weren’t many compromises compared to the gas car.

The change of the squircle tail lights and squared off front headlight assembly has focus group results written all over it. It lost a lot of the underlining tension of the concept, and the floating c-pillar is so overdone at this point, but it is still nice. The concept car roofline I think would have helped the whole thing sit down a little more.

I’m being overly critical because I like this thing so much. I appreciate how simple it is, and how close it is to the design intent. If it had better range and was sold in the US, it is very likely it would be in our household… will have to see what the VW EV is going to be.
images.jpeg

I really, really wish this Honda Urban EV has better range. Now that I’ve had more time away from the concept version, the production design has grown on me. It is so fun and friendly like Baymax from Big Hero 6!

Yeah the explanations about range seem more like a post-rationalization for a car that had to become anyway. They probably realize that a car has to fit all use cases so buyers never have to lease or borrow one, or buy a second non-ev for vacations, long family trips etc. The coverage for speed-chargers is just at its infancy.

But I still like this little car, actually the first improvement from concept to production. They added a simplicity and some own character which I like. I also like how color is coming back to production models. The car did lose a bit of dynamics, is a bit too bulky and the surfaces on the side have too little going on. It always works on a picture but standing next to it 1:1, it’s very different. They probably had to add that blacking on the bottom to visually lift up all that volume. Car designers need to step to AR visualizations for rapid true scale evaluations. All in all it reminds me more now of the Suzuki Swift or Fiat 500 redesign, but then again, those delivered great sales numbers.