New £30k Honda e successor on the way
The Japanese brand is gearing up to develop a more affordable successor to the Honda e
Honda is considering a replacement for its funky ‘Honda e’ electric hatchback, possibly based on the 2023 Sustaina-C concept – with a development plan being looked at for a small sub-£30,000 EV that would sit outside the brand’s new seven-car 0 Series platform.
The first two 0 Series cars – the as-yet unnamed large saloon and SUV models – were unveiled in near-production prototype form at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week. But speaking at the event, Honda’s Global Head of Electrification Business Development Katsushi Inoue said the brand is aware of the growing need for more affordable electric cars. He also confirmed that the 0 Series platform wouldn’t support anything smaller than a Civic-sized car.
“We are thinking about it away from 0 Series,” he said. “We’re at the development stage, nothing is committed today but we understand that a new market is coming. We know the market is there; 0 Series can’t go that small so we will take care of the main market first. Eventually in the future we will talk about smaller vehicles, we will need to develop another sized platform.”
Revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2023, the Honda Sustaina-C concept was – as the name suggests – a sustainable small car that the maker said would allow it “to transcend the constraints of the limited availability of resources”. To further boost its green credentials, it featured a small electric bike in the boot for last-mile commutes.
As well as the 0 Series development, Honda also has EV platforms and models built for either Japanese or Chinese markets that it could dial into, or develop new underpinnings for a smaller EV or family of EVs.
Of the seven cars confirmed under the 0 Series plan between now and 2030, the SUV and saloon will reach global markets from next year, with a baby SUV to be revealed in 2026 – at this stage only confirmed for Asian markets, although Europe is a possibility. A larger seven-seat SUV in 2027 is likely to be only for the US market.
Beyond that, a compact SUV is expected in 2028, a year ahead of another smaller SUV, plus a compact saloon by the end of the decade.
Although China and Japan are the target markets for the smallest SUV coming next year, Honda’s BEV General Manager Mitsuri Kariya admitted that although it’s not decided, he would like to see the baby electric SUV come to European markets as well.
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