Why you’ll go far with the range of the Honda e
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With the rise of the electric car, drivers are adjusting to a new age of environmentally aware motoring. One of the key factors influencing their choice is the driving range that any electric car’s battery provides.
How far can you go with the Honda e?
Find out how far you could travel on a full charge in the Honda e Advance by playing our game.
On your journey through the city, collect as many Honda badges as you can for more points and don’t forget to pick up charging stations along the way to recharge or you’ll lose power. The longer you can keep your Honda e charged up for, the further you’ll be able to travel and the more chances you’ll get to increase your score. You only have three lives, so watch out for any obstacles on the road, including oil slips, barriers, and cones. Each time you drive into one, you’ll lose a life.
Can you beat the high score on the leaderboard? Play now to find out.*
*The Honda e game is only compatible on desktop devices.
Click to play
There’s a simple reason for why the driving range has become a focal point: it takes longer to recharge a battery than it does to fill a car with petrol or diesel. But, as any electric car owner will tell you, living with an electric car brings many advantages. Chief among those is the flexibility to charge the battery at home, at work or even when out and about, shopping or meeting friends for dinner.
Even so, it’s important to know the range of an electric car you’re considering buying. How might that magic number fit in with your day-to-day routine, is it suited to your commute, and will it work for you at the weekend when longer trips are likely to come into to play?
At this point, let’s be realistic. Not many drivers will often find themselves needing to drive further than the range of any electric car. In fact, according to research, the average car spends just four percent of its time in use. For electric car owners, the remaining downtime can be dedicated to charging. As for the average commute, the Department for Transport says drivers travel just 10 miles.
Needless to say, from time to time, the majority of drivers will exceed a trip of 10 miles. But the figures serve to illustrate how well suited electric cars are to the majority of journeys, and explain why most owners of electric cars find they fit into their routine remarkably well.
• The average car is driven for only 4% of its lifetime. The rest of the time it’s parked.
• Typically, a commute is 10 miles.
• Drivers clock up on average 7,600 miles a year.
• Company car drivers travel much further in a year than private car owners – 17,500 versus 7,400 miles.
Source: National Travel Survey 2018
The Honda e is capable of driving for nearly 140 miles between charges when equipped with 16-inch diameter wheels. But there’s so much more to this clever car than numbers alone.
From the outset, the Honda e was conceived to bring a bold simplicity to urban mobility. It fuses design that stands out of the crowd, a driving experience that is fun and the very latest in technology and connectivity to create one of the most exciting cars of its time.
There’s another important consideration that went into shaping the Honda e: its environmental impact. A compact car takes up less space on the road, weighs less than a larger model, requires less energy during its construction – the manufacturing of a battery is the greatest contributor to an electric car’s lifetime emissions – and uses less energy to get from A to B.
Beneath the surface of the cool hatchback is a 35.5kWh lithium-ion battery that gives the Honda e a driving range of up to 137 miles with 16-inch diameter wheels, or 131 miles when fitted 17-inch wheels. Allowing for an average commuting distance of 10 miles (according to the National Travel Survey, 2018), the range of the Honda e could comfortably cover a week of travelling to and from work between charges.
And for those trips further afield, it’s remarkable how versatile an electric-powered car like the Honda e will prove. For example, if you live in London and fancy a weekend trip to the seaside, driving to Brighton and back – a 106-mile round trip – is within the car’s maximum range. Alternatively, if you live in Manchester and can’t resist a shopping spree in Leeds, you could do a return 89-mile journey in the Honda e – allowing for spare mileage to get around the city as you search out the hottest boutiques and a free parking space! Meanwhile, a motorway trip up and back down the M1 from Coventry to Milton Keynes, a drive of 100 miles, could be accomplished without the need to stop for a charge.*
*These figures are based on the maximum range output of the Honda e, which varies from 131-137 depending on the grade, and don’t take into account the route travelled, driving conditions, vehicle health or driver behaviour. For more information on the Honda e’s range, see the specifications.
Charging times for the Honda e
The water-cooled and heated lithium-ion battery of the Honda e boasts compact proportions and a low centre of gravity, which allow for a spacious interior and a responsive feel on the road. Just as significant to drivers is its ability to accept a rapid-charge.
It is able to accept up to 100kW, using an ultra-rapid DC charging point, dramatically reducing the time it takes for the battery to charge and making light work of long journeys. With the Honda e, its battery could go from empty to 80 percent capacity in around 20 minutes.
Increasing numbers of ultra-rapid chargers are being installed through the UK, and are commonly found at service stations on the main roads that make up our strategic road network.
But there is already a wide spread of 50kW rapid chargers and using one of these would take about 30 minutes to reach an 80 percent charge from the moment the low charge warning indicator alerts the driver.
At home and at work, the most commonly found charger is a 7kW unit, much like the Honda Power Charger. This would take the car’s battery to 100 percent charge in little more than four hours.
Estimated charging times for the Honda e, once the battery warning light illuminates
Electric car incentives that every driver will like
Did you know that it’s cheaper to charge an electric car than it is to fill a petrol or diesel with the equivalent amount of fuel to travel the same distance? Depending on how far you drive each year, those savings can amount to hundreds or more than a thousand pounds. And there are plenty more financial savings to be enjoyed.
To help encourage more motorists to adopt to sustainable, electric cars, the government offers a wide range of incentives that can make the switch as financially rewarding as it is environmentally compelling. New electric cars that cost less than £50,000 qualify for a low-emission vehicle grant of £3,000, which reduces the purchase price for individuals or businesses.
find out more
Zero emission electric cars pay no road tax (Vehicle Excise Duty), no matter how much they cost, which can be a substantial annual saving depending on the model. And company car drivers enjoy preferential benefit-in-kind tax rates, which are zero in 2020/2021, one percent in 2021/2022 and two percent in 2022/2023.
So, whether you want to enjoy your drive, reduce your emissions or cut your motoring bills, the innovative Honda e delivers on all counts – and many more besides.
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