Honda e IN THE CITY
With Dan Cammish,
Halfords Yuasa Racing BTCC Driver
As someone more used to tearing around a race track in the latest Honda Civic Type R for Halfords Yuasa Racing in the British Touring Car Championship, the idea of trying out Honda's all-new, all-electric car was an interesting proposition, to say the least.
The Honda e was loaned to me for a full day so I could drive it in and around London, exploring the city, which is exactly the sort of environment cars like this are designed for.
Despite the fact there's such a huge focus on electric cars all around the world, you might be surprised to learn that until my day in the Honda e, my only experience of an electrified vehicle was some time spent driving Honda’s hybrid supercar, the NSX.
So, the Honda e would be my first chance to experience a fully electric car, and I was definitely intrigued to see what it would be like.
Dan's day job as a star of the British Touring Car Championship
Dan's day job as a star of the British Touring Car Championship
Although I knew driving the Honda e would be very different from what I'm used to, I did go into this with a somewhat positive perspective.
I knew that electric vehicles are renowned for the way they deliver a big kick of torque almost instantly, and my brief time driving the NSX in electric-only mode had shown me what a cool experience it might be to drive around in a purely electric car.
I liked what I'd seen of the Honda e from looking at images online, but I was even more impressed with the car once I got to see it in person.
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If you're like me and you’re heavily into the latest tech, you'll love what you find inside it. The interior is very inviting – the design is a blend of retro meets uber-modern.
And I thought that if the Honda e is half as good to drive as it is to look at, it's going to be a real winner.
The cabin of the Honda e is a very nice place to be – a whole day spent sat in it is like spending a day on the sofa in your living room. Even though it's a city car, and I never actually got into the back seats, Honda has made the absolute most of the available space, and it does feel very calm and airy inside.
The sky roof is a feature that I particularly like – it gives you the impression that the interior is even more spacious than it actually is by letting more light into the car.
The exterior reminded me of the first-generation Civic, with its iconic square shape. The eye-like headlights and indicators are real standout features for me, and they perfectly complement the boxy but smooth lines of the Honda e’s overall silhouette.
The cabin of the Honda e is a very nice place to be – a whole day spent sat in it is like spending a day on the sofa in your living room. Even though it's a city car, and I never actually got into the back seats, Honda has made the absolute most of the available space, and it does feel very calm and airy inside.
The sky roof is a feature that I particularly like – it gives you the impression that the interior is even more spacious than it actually is by letting more light into the car.
The exterior reminded me of the first-generation Civic, with its iconic square shape. The eye-like headlights and indicators are real standout features for me, and they perfectly complement the boxy but smooth lines of the Honda e’s overall silhouette.
The day began from my home in Twickenham, where there's an electric charging point right outside my front door. And there are loads more just down the road at Twickenham Green, so this is a great area to live if you want to run an electric car.
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I started by driving around a little bit in the urban area close to where I live, before then venturing off into London to take in some of the sights.
We drove around the Gherkin and over a couple of London's well-known bridges – the sort of places a car like the Honda e is designed to thrive in.
If you’re a bit of a petrol head, you’re not going to wake up on a Sunday morning with a burning desire to drive fast around country lanes in a car like this. However, if you’re using the Honda e for what it's designed for, like its ability to negotiate tight city streets and small spaces, it's going to be hard to beat in all honesty.
What really struck me about the Honda e, right from the start, was just how nimble it was. I must have performed at least 400 U-turns in the day because I couldn’t believe how easy it was to spin around on the spot and go back to where you'd started from, especially with that instant electric ‘shove’ the Honda e delivers.
Perhaps if I'd looked at the specifications a little more beforehand, I would have seen the Honda e has a turning radius of just 4.3 metres. To put that into perspective, the turning radius of something like a Honda Civic 5 Door is more than 10 metres.
Unlike a conventional petrol or diesel car where you've got to change gear, put your foot down, wait a bit, and then it goes, with the Honda e, it just instantly goes. Between zero and 40 mph – which is all you can really do in London – the car was like nothing else I've experienced before.
The Honda e is packed full of innovative technology, such as the camera mirrors.
They did take a little getting used to – they tend to make things look nearer than they really are, but in many ways, they performed much better than a conventional wing or rearview mirrors.
The conditions on the day were pretty poor, with torrential rain. But there was none of that misting up you get with a conventional mirror, and they adjusted to the ambient light to give you a superb view of what was behind you at all times.
I’d like to have explored some of the technology a little more, like being able to plug in a Nintendo into the HDMI port for a little R&R when you want a break from driving. But I did get to feed the virtual fish on the digital dashboard!
There are lots for you to do inside the Honda e if you want to take advantage of its many tech features. You’re not going to get bored in a hurry!
The driving experience is very different from a diesel or petrol car.
For a start, there are no gears for you to worry about, although there are paddles on the steering wheel if you want to simulate something of the feel of manual driving. Compared to driving a conventional car, the Honda e is zippier, and everything is more instant thanks to the immediate delivery of all that electric torque.
What really hit me about the driving experience was not only how quiet and relaxing it was but also how much fun it was to drive.
Even as a racing driver who loves the noise of a combustion engine, I couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed nipping around London listening to the radio in the silence of the Honda, and I can’t think of anything else I'd rather have been driving in those circumstances.
Compared to my BTCC Civic Type R, driving the Honda e is just about the opposite in every conceivable way. Although my race car starts its life as a Type R – like you can buy from a retailer – by the time the team has finished with it, the only thing it has in common with the road car is the body shell and the dashboard. Inside my BTCC Type R, it's ridiculously loud, uncomfortable, and you feel every little bump and imperfection in the road surface, which is exactly opposite to being inside the Honda e.
Everything is easier with the Honda e.
When I get into my race car, I have to go through a whole start-up routine to get underway. But all you have to do with the Honda e is to sit inside, press go and you’re off and on your way.
It took a bit of getting used to because there were a couple of times when I got in and pressed power, which actually turned it off. It's a level of ease and convenience I could really get used to.
The way the Honda lets you switch between forward and reverse in an instant is also a joy to behold, and it makes you realise how much messing about you have to do in a conventional car.
At this point, I think it's about time I addressed what is a thorny issue for a lot of people when they think of electric cars, which is charging.
For me, being in and around a big city and using the Zap-Map phone app to locate charging points, recharging wasn't really an issue as there turned out to be more charging stations than I'd realised. Swiping your card to authorise payment was as easy as can be, and it was great to see how little it cost compares to filling up with petrol.
The maximum range on a full charge is between 131-137 miles. In truth, that's more than enough for your needs in the city, especially with so many places available for you to recharge if you need to.
I used the car from 4.30am and returned home at around 1.30pm. During that time, I'd been driving around in a stop/start manner and constantly accelerating and decelerating due to London traffic, which is quite different to how most people would use their car on an everyday basis. Despite all this, there was still a bit of charge left when I took it back home.
Yes, if you're going to spend a vast amount of time driving fast on the motorway, you’re probably not going to get eight or nine hours of driving without having to recharge. On the other hand, if you're a salesman who spends most of their day on the motorway, you’re probably not going to be looking at a car like the Honda e anyway.
Electrification isn't just the future of the daily commute either; it's also going to be the future of motor racing too.
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I have a little extra insight into this, and my eyes have been opened to it as my girlfriend works for Formula E, which is the electric racing championship. Electric racing is already interesting, but as more and more big manufacturers get involved and push the technology forward, it will become increasingly popular.
And I think it will have a big influence on road cars too.It's well known that companies like Honda take a lot of the technology they develop for Formula 1 and other race series and adapt it into their road cars, so the same thing is sure to happen with electric car technology.
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My only concern with a move towards electric racing is the lack of noise and the absence of the smell of combustion engine racing. But I suppose that's just the way it's got to be going forward. Personally, I'd welcome a return to the big V-8 engines, but I appreciate that's not going to happen.
I have been to a Formula E race, however, and it's immediately noticeable that the appeal is to a much younger demographic who probably don't care about the noise and smell as much and probably aren't even interested in owning a car themselves.
Electrification isn't just the future of the daily commute either; it's also going to be the future of motor racing too.
I have a little extra insight into this, and my eyes have been opened to it as my girlfriend works for Formula E, which is the electric racing championship. Electric racing is already interesting, but as more and more big manufacturers get involved and push the technology forward, it will become increasingly popular. And I think it will have a big influence on road cars too.
It's well known that companies like Honda take a lot of the technology they develop for Formula 1 and other race series and adapt it into their road cars, so the same thing is sure to happen with electric car technology.
My only concern with a move towards electric racing is the lack of noise and the absence of the smell of combustion engine racing. But I suppose that's just the way it's got to be going forward. Personally, I'd welcome a return to the big V-8 engines, but I appreciate that's not going to happen. I have been to a Formula E race, however, and it's immediately noticeable that the appeal is to a much younger demographic who probably don't care about the noise and smell as much and probably aren't even interested in owning a car themselves.
Getting back to the Honda e, though, I was amazed at how much interest it generated for what is effectively such a modest car.
It looks so unique, and all sorts of people wanted to look at it and come up and ask me what it was and what it was like to drive. It's so fun and quirky, and as you’re nipping around London with the window down you can actually hear people on the street talking to each other about it and asking what it is. Even when I stopped at traffic lights, people tapped on their window to ask me about it, which you’d normally only expect if you were driving some sort of supercar.
Yes, I absolutely would.
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