Honda Shows Nifty e Limited Edition, You Can't Have One

In yet another example of want-it-can’t-have-it from companies which sling cars on both sides of the pond, Honda has introduced a Limited Edition of its spellcheck-vexing ‘e’ all-electric city car. Appearing next to the machine is one Max Verstappen, who appears to somehow be standing on his own without support from ex-F1 race director Michael Masi.

This so-called Limited Edition is essentially a paint and wallpaper job, since it adds items like a unique Crystal Red paint shade unavailable on other trims, snappy black accents, and a set of 17-inch alloys (also dipped in a pot of inky paint, of course). The LE is built from a top-spec Advance trim which includes tech such as clever multi-view cameras on the doors and a heated windshield.

As an aside, does anyone else recall Ford’s Insta-Clear windshields from the late-‘80s and early-‘90s? It was a technology which essentially sandwiched the basic guts of a rear-window defrost system between two panes of glass so the driver could hit a button and be rewarded with an ice-free windshield in jig time. This author vaguely remembers being able to spot them on Crown Vics thanks to their pinkish or copper-like hue. Surely such a feature on an EV must hoover plenty of electrons from the limited supply in the 35.5 kWh battery of a Honda e.

That battery is, most likely, one of the reasons Honda does not offer this car stateside. Even the wildly optimistic WLTP estimates place the e’s range at a maximum of just 137 miles, a round-trip distance most midwesteners must travel to get a fresh gallon of milk in the morning. With cars like the Chevy Bolt and Hyundai Ioniq 5 getting nearly double that distance on a full charge, it’s easy to understand why Honda thinks the e won’t make a go of it in this country. Witness the Mazda MX-30, a otherwise slick-looking and attractive EV with a battery capacity roughly equal to the Honda e and an EPA-rated driving range of just, um, 100 miles. Last month, Mazda sold 23 of them in California. Hyundai sold 2,853 Ioniq 5 models in twenty-six states.

But we will maintain the Honda e looks tremendously retro in a forward-looking sort of way. If the little scamp had a bigger battery or range extender, it’d probably make bank on its looks alone (for comment on that phenomenon, we go live to the TTAC studio in Hollywood). The e makes 136 horsepower, if you’re wondering, and 232 lb.-ft of torque. It is priced at about 35,000 pounds in Britain, translating to roughly 42 grand at today’s exchange rate – about ten large more than a base MX-30.

[Image: Honda]