[srichards]

Due to the Corsa really cheesing me off I decide to break the habit of a lifetime and actually test drive a car I was thinking of buying rather than just sitting in it and relying on James & Kate etc reviews.

I expected to be smitten. I wasn't.

The looks are awesome. The stereo is awesome. The concept is awesome. But...

The screens feel too close and the steering wheel doesn't pull out far at all. Seats are very firm. They are well designed and supportive. I was sat too high in the car as well.

The screen mirrors do work really well but if you're a certain age the driver's side one can be just in the area of vision that is in the needs reading glasses distance. I did get used to it but it did make by eyes weird at times.

Ride is also quite firm but it corners flat as anything. Power steering is clever and weights up at higher speeds but it does mean the car sometimes feels weird when you change direction.

Road noise seems quite intrusive in a way I wasn't expecting. It's definitely louder inside than the Corsa.

Turning circle is fantastic. Stereo is so good I almost ignored all the other negatives.

Steering wheel is also kind of sweaty compared to the cheaper feeling Corsa one.

Boot is very shallow which I didn't grasp. I thought it was shallower horizontally but taller (like the Soul EV). It's very shallow in height but a bit longer in depth. I did have the measurements but somehow they didn't translate to my brain.

Range. Hmmm. Did 30 odd miles and it had about 60% battery or so which isn't any good as my usual trip is 55 and all year so it wasn't going to be quite up to it. It was quite efficient at times and once you'd been going for a bit and were bimbling along at 30-40 it did go up quite a bit. Over all was 3.3 miles per kWh on the mixed run. Think the Corsa would have actually done better. With a tiny battery you have to be much more efficient. It needed to have been Kia efficient as I'd reckon one of those would have been about 4 -4.5 miles per kWh doing the same.

One pedal mode is quite good but even on max death the regen feels weaker than I expected. It was weaker feeling than the Corsa which is quite weak. The Leaf had very strong regen in B mode and also with E Pedal. That was neck snapping in comparison.

Other issue was with reversing onto a sloping driveway. It didn't like it. Mine slopes down and it seems to upset quite a few cars. The corsa I just stick in reverse and it creeps in reverse with the brake on happily. I turned off the one pedal in the Honda and it didn't seem to want to creep so you hit the gas, it lurches off you hit the brake and it's at a dead halt so you are making a right hash of a simple thing.

I'm glad a drove one as it's been one of those cars I haven't stopped obsessing over since they came out.

 

[foureyes]

Thanks. Saves me trying to convince myself to keep wanting one!

Coould you try the Mini next?

 

[tophatron]

Might be worth trying the Fiat 500e too!

 

[srichards]

Looking at the Honda Boot and going back to mine has made me realise the Corsa boot is the smallest I could live with. Fiat and Mini boots are both smaller. Mini also seems to not have a heated steering wheel on any trim level or I couldn't find where it was listed.

 

[MarkyM]

My wife & I felt the same when had test drive last year. Not good enough. I thought the screens poor resolution which was a big disappointment as they dominate the cabin. The drivers screen was much better though.
poor efficiency and we drove in summer temperatures. 26 degC or so. Got same efficiency as you. Solid feeling and drives well enough but TOO heavy for such a small car which is why efficiency is so poor.
fantastic turning circle but that is not that much of a selling point overall. No frunk unforgivable in a ground up design EV with a tiny boot!
And it has just 50kw charging speeds but on release said it was 100 kW capable.
A colleague pre ordered and owns one. Likes it but purely short distance commuter car. But almost £30k for a short distance commuter car?! Was getting 50-60 mile range this winter. Just not good enough. Same as original Leaf from 2010.
Lots of YT reviews marvelling at the aquarium on the screens and that you could plug in a kettle In th 3 pin socket. In the real world though, former is a 5 minute wonder/gimmick and the latter much more useful in a bigger batteried EV! With such a minuscule range most owners would be worried about losing even more mileage By plugging in high drain electrical equipment.
They need to put a slightly bigger battery in it. eg-45kwh to 50kwh and keep the price the same or lower. Will sell better then. Not seen another on the road apart from my colleague’s so I don’t think they have sold that many.

 

[srichards]

I did like the feel of rear wheel drive though. It's much nicer in some ways.

I haven't seen a single one in the wild either. The honda dealer is only a few miles away so I'm surprised I haven't seen more of them pottering about.

The sales person I spoke to was also using one and doing 60 mile return trip with 50 left regularly he said. Mostly dual carriageway as well so I did think it might have been ok.

It was a lot better mannered at 70 than I expected. If they do a mk2 with a bit bigger battery capacity and better sound insulation I might be interested. It's still the sort of car you look back at when you lock it.

I think Tesla Bjorn did a 75 mph test in warm weather and it was 75 miles range I think. Car wow got 110 I think to flat as a fart. Corsa did about 170 so there's quite the jump.

 

[Tooks]

If I were to put together a Jay Leno style car collection, but limited to EVs obviously, it’s a car I’d buy. It would have to be green, or maybe white, but it’s a car I love looking at.

I saw a green one on the A1 a few weeks back, made me slow down and have a god look at it.

As a practical daily driver for me though, wouldn’t work, but still an interesting car in its own right.

 

[srichards]

It's the sort of car I'd park in a big garage to look at along with a few other classic old cars.

 

[cdlb]

I've seen one in the wild - somebody in one of the villages near me has one. I'm very regular get stuck behind it on the country roads. I'm not a fast driver by any stretch of the imagination, but this is something else. I don't know where exactly the problem lies, but my guess is either nervous driver (which the locals tend not to be), car that's crap on twisty roads, or driver that's worried about having enough range to get home...

 

[Boxbrownie]

An interesting write up thank you, those LCD mirrors are a bit of a bone of contention within the industry (or were) as all the testing we did fall heavily in your “I need reading glasses” category, it was great for younger engineers but to those of a certain age they were a pain......and this was back in the 90’s, there is no technology that can make the screen appear further away to the brain/eyes and thus sharp.

The same is happening presently with a lot of Land Rover/Range Rover drivers who have the Clearsight RVM complaining of the same issue, but at least the CS RVM can be used as a conventional mirror.

I love the look of the Honda, forward design which shouts EV.

 

[srichards]

Camera viewfinders have dioptre adjustment. You'd need that on the wing mirror screen but I have no idea how on earth you could do it. I think some of the electronic viewfinders also have dioptre some how.

 

[Boxbrownie]

Camera viewfinders have dioptre adjustment. You'd need that on the wing mirror screen but I have no idea how on earth you could do it. I think some of the electronic viewfinders also have dioptre some how.

You can’t unfortunately, well not practically.....it works on viewfinders because your eye focal point can be corrected when close to the image by diopter adjustment but not when the image is two or three feet away.

 

[meetyg]

@srichards So it makes you appreciate your Corsa-e a bit more now, huh ?

I'm not saying the Corsa-e is prefect, but IMO it's a good all-rounder... fairly practical if you don't need the extra space in the rear/boot.

I think the Corsa-e's ergonomics are also OK. I can't see myself getting used to something like a Tesla or even an ID.3 with all those touch sensitive buttons and sliders. And I do consider myself a tech geek.

I really don't understand Honda's intentions when they created the E. It just goes to show you that so much tech won't make up for a non-practical car.
It's nice as a concept car, but really shouldn't have made it to production.

 

[srichards]

It makes me appreciate I shouldn't tolerate the pathetic excuses from Vauxhall for sub standard software as all the functions on the Honda work properly. Bluetooth reconnects correctly. It starts instantly. It was released in a pandemic as well. Blind spot function also seems to work like it should.

Honda has buttons and knobs for quite a few things so it's definitely functionally ok. Heated wheel button is on the heated steering wheel like the Corsa not in some random corner like a lot of other cars.

 

[Atsoc15]

I really like the look of the Honda e, but not driven it yet so this is very useful thanks. Trying to decide what 2nd car to get for the household.

 

[srichards]

As a short range second car it'd be ideal really. Especially if it's mostly city driving as the one pedal feature is quite good. You don't even use the brake. It just holds itself when you stop and then off you go again as soon as the traffic moves. It's definitely a better feeling one pedal system than the Leaf one. That's quite soft to go and harsh to stop. The Honda is more uniform but regen isn't as strong.

 

[TJEV]

The Honda E was great but the Jazz was £8k cheaper and actually has better level 2 autonomy/safety tech (check the NCAP videos) due to a wider angle camera.

 

[Jimrod]

Interesting read, I'm getting to the point where I need to start thinking about what to replace my lease BMW i3 with in November (lead times etc!) and the Honda E just came back on my radar for some reason. Always loved the design but the range put me off, wanted to go for the Ioniq 5 but availability and no-doubt stratospheric price is ruling that out!

Sadly this thread has convinced me it's probably a non-starter, it's the closest car to the now-ancient i3 really in terms of concept but at 150kg heavier, slower with less power and smaller battery - by the looks of it less efficient to boot! It just seems a real shame they chose the small battery route, doesn't seem to offer the great weight saving the idea was based on, was hoping they'd have been working on a slightly larger version but can't find anything imminent. I could just about live with the even smaller boot but there seem far too many compromises overall, an i3S is currently far cheaper to lease and probably still one of the better small options. Bummer.

*Edit - one other factor with these small battery cars I'm not sure is considered enough - lifespan, Li-ion batteries degrade with number of cycles and when you have to top up twice as often on something like the Honda E vs similar sized Zoe you're likely to experience even more depleted range after a few years, killing used prices too!

 

[Bill N]

Interesting read, I'm getting to the point where I need to start thinking about what to replace my lease BMW i3 with in November (lead times etc!) and the Honda E just came back on my radar for some reason. Always loved the design but the range put me off, wanted to go for the Ioniq 5 but availability and no-doubt stratospheric price is ruling that out!

Sadly this thread has convinced me it's probably a non-starter, it's the closest car to the now-ancient i3 really in terms of concept but at 150kg heavier, slower with less power and smaller battery - by the looks of it less efficient to boot! It just seems a real shame they chose the small battery route, doesn't seem to offer the great weight saving the idea was based on, was hoping they'd have been working on a slightly larger version but can't find anything imminent. I could just about live with the even smaller boot but there seem far too many compromises overall, an i3S is currently far cheaper to lease and probably still one of the better small options. Bummer.

*Edit - one other factor with these small battery cars I'm not sure is considered enough - lifespan, Li-ion batteries degrade with number of cycles and when you have to top up twice as often on something like the Honda E vs similar sized Zoe you're likely to experience even more depleted range after a few years, killing used prices too!

Get an i3s - provided you are happy to keep making do with 50kW, which the flat charging curve partly makes up for anyway. I wouldn't let the age of the i3 put you off - it's still an amazing car. Over on the Onto forums, there's almost universal praise for it amongst people who have had one, and most still prefer it over much newer cars (sadly Onto have just stopped offering it - but many are hoping they will offer the i3s someday).

 

[srichards]

Another i3 is probably the answer @Jimrod The electric Corsa is being discounted like mad. It's worth a try but it's not a finished car by any means.