Honda has shown a new concept car hinting at a city-focused EV at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Named the Super EV Concept, it is an A-segment hatchback to rival the Hyundai Inster, Fiat 500e and upcoming Renault Twingo, with styling that draws on the previous Honda E supermini.
Technical details remain thin on the ground, but Honda said it is intended to show how a small, affordable EV can be fun to drive. It has already been tested in the UK as part of a broader international roll-out.
Honda has also used the event to showcase the radical 0 Series SUV concept in Europe for the first time, as well as the Civic Type R Ultimate Edition. The new Prelude coupé is running up the Goodwood hillclimb.
Any production version of the Super EV would likely represent the entry point to Honda’s future EV line-up, sitting opposite the upmarket 0 Series range.
The Japanese brand plans to launch seven new EVs in the coming years, with these using a new platform, new batteries and new motor technologies, in an effective reset of its approach to electrification compared with the old E and current e:Ny1.
“As society is starting to move from the early stage to the widespread adoption stage, the time has come to invest in our EV strategy,” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told Autocar last year.
However, Honda is also going big on hybridisation, with 13 new models due globally by 2030 in a bid to bridge the gap to mass-adoption of battery-electric cars. These will use what the brand has claimed to be the most efficient combustion-engined powertrains yet.
