Honda E-Concept EV
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This new E-Concept is said to be much closer to the production car we will see in just a few months.
While it is still “cute”. It is now also quite “dorky”.
Not at all as nice as the really great looking Urban EV Concept from last year.
Although I have to wonder how many screens are too much.
How many screens before the whole dashboard becomes so distracting it is impossible to actually drive???
The prototype has a range of only 125 miles. Which is really not good enough these days.
Especially for an all-new car.
It seems Honda is really having trouble with their EVs range. (The Clarity EV only gets 89 miles!)
While Hyundai and Kia are now up to well over 200 miles.
Here is the original Urban EV Concept.
It seems that almost all of its personality has been lost in the translation to the new E-Concept…
Honda’s Leaf, Bolt, Kona competitor! Smallish EVs for the “greenie” to buy!
I am so thankful that they have generally kept the simplicity of the concept, compared to the overly busy style of current production Hondas.
Elements that "dorkify" the style of this production design compared to the original:
1. Those headlights and hood line – the partially hidden top of the lights on the original concept look much better. This production design has a wide-eyed look that looks much more ordinary and dated. Even just dipping the contour of the hood line in the grill to match the original civic grill shape would drastically improve this.
2. Those taillights – the rectangular looked a little substantial and aggressive. These round ones end up looking small and cheap.
3. Those wheels. Larger and light color like the concept would be nicer, but even at this size, choosing a light color with a simpler design would improve this a bit. The dark recedes visually, and the light, flat spokes give almost a wheel cover look to it.
The smaller, rounder lights don't ruin it.. but the extra doors and complete removal of the flared fenders do.
I think you're being overly critical of this design transition. The new 'concept' is a pretty good realization of a very obvious conceptual design and I would imagine the production car will not stray much from this new version if at all. It is a far more faithful transition from concept to reality than most manufacturers do. I don't totally disagree with the comments regarding the forward and rear lights, but I also don't think the new versions hurt the design, and if the car is a bit 'dorky' well then it has some personality and isn't an assault on the eyes like pretty much every Toyota Prius is. Range is pretty pathetic but I imagine the Honda brass will market this as more an urban-only car where you are plugging it in every night. Not that they shouldn't make a longer-range version – I think Honda is looking at this more for Japan and European markets than North American. Here it will need 250-300 mile ranges to be successful. But overall I think it is pretty good – I mean, they kept the camera-based side viewers (can't really call them 'mirrors')!