We can't drive the Honda E, so let's watch the Junkyard Wars guy do it instead – Roadshow

We’ve been borderline obsessed with Honda’s little E electric city car since the brand showed the concept version way back in 2017. We’ve learned lots about the car as Honda has trickled out information throughout the E’s long gestation, but we still don’t know how it is to drive.

That’s why we were excited to see this video from the excellent Fully Charged show on YouTube. Robert Llewellyn (who you may know as the guy from Scrapheap Challenge, the British version of Junkyard Wars) is shown piloting the E around a track in Frankfurt.

In the video, Llewellyn confirms many of our suspicions about the car. It’s nimble, with a turning circle of just over 14 feet — this is smaller than the famously agile London black cab — and produces ample power for its size. He also confirms the effectiveness of Honda’s camera-based rear-view system, which replaces the side mirrors.

He also shows the ability of the Honda E to be driven with one pedal, something that is becoming increasingly popular with EV owners. Other manufacturers like Nissan have touted their one-pedal driving solutions, so it’s good that Honda has worked it into this car.

Finally, while we don’t get an actual price for the vehicle, Llewellyn does say that Honda will sell the E for between £25 and £40,000, which converts to somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000.

The real tragedy of the E is that Honda doesn’t seem to be planning to sell it here in the US. In some ways that makes sense: With its relatively small range (compared to say, a Tesla or a Bolt) it would have some hurdles to clear with range-obsessed American buyers. It would also likely have to lose its side-view cameras and replace them with mirrors which would probably hurt range further.

Still, the Honda E is precisely the kind of smart, unique and affordable car that made Honda the powerhouse automaker that it is today and we’re sure it’ll sell like hotcakes elsewhere in the world.


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Honda’s adorable E Prototype looks ready to hit the road



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source: cnet.com