- Honda’s kei-derived EV on sale in the UK from £18,995 this summer.
- Boost mode slashes 0-62 time by 4.5 seconds, adds fake gears, sounds.
- Boxy design with flared fenders inspired by iconic 1980s City Turbo II.
It’s not hard to buy a used kei car outside of Japan, but for the past 20 years buying a new one in the West from an official franchised dealer has been almost impossible. Honda rights that wrong this summer when its Super-N lands in Europe with a bargain price and a full factory warranty.
If you haven’t met the Super-N before, it’s a pint-sized electric hatch based on Japan’s Super-One kei car and inspired by the now legendary City Turbo II hot hatch of the 1980s. More importantly, it starts at just £18,995 (equal to around $25,100 or €21,900 at current rates), making it both Honda’s cheapest EV in Europe and one of the cheapest EVs on sale in Britain.
At that price it should undercut rivals like the Renault Twingo E-Tech (sub-£20k est) and is only £345 ( $456 or €398) more than BYD’s most basic Dolphin Surf.
The Super-N measures just 3,599 mm (141.7 inches) long and 1,573 mm (61.9 inches) wide, yet Honda claims it can comfortably accommodate four adults while delivering the kind of packaging genius the brand built its reputation on. It has the same fold-up “magic” rear seat base that made the Honda Jazz so much more useful than a Ford Fiesta back in 2001, for example.
Related: Mugen’s Super-One Looks Like A Race Car. Its Motor Disagrees
In normal driving mode, the compact e-Axle produces 63 hp (64 PS / 47 kW), enough to get the little electric hatch from 0 to 62 mph in a leisurely 14.5 seconds. But press the BOOST button and output jumps to 94 hp (95 PS / 70 kW), cutting the sprint time to 10.0 seconds.
Seven Fake Gears
No, that won’t trouble a hot hatch. But in a car weighing only 1,097 kg (2,420 lbs), it’s going to feel pretty eager squirting away from city stoplights. Especially since Honda has even added a simulated seven-speed transmission and an artificial engine soundtrack. We first saw this kind of tech in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, but even Porsche has jumped on the trend, this week adding it to the updated Taycan.
The Super-N’s range means the city is its natural habitat. A tiny 29.6 kWh battery delivers a WLTP combined figure of 128 miles (206 km), though Honda says urban driving can stretch that to 199 miles (320 km). Fast charging to 80 percent takes around 30 minutes.
Bose Hifi Is Standard
For enthusiasts, though, the biggest attraction isn’t the range or the price, or the fact that the CarPlay/Android Auto-enabled infotainment system is hooked up to a standard Bose audio system. Or that Honda plans to offer multiple exterior graphics packages to make the little box stand out even more.
It’s the fact that Honda has leverage its existing kei catalog to bring a quirky, affordable, lightweight small car to Europe that genuinely looks like it’ll be fun to drive and own. If only America could buy one too.
