Honda confirmed to each Automotive Information and Prime Gear that the retro-chic, battery-electric Honda e hatchback is lifeless in Europe. Anybody who needs one must get it out of stock, because the automaker has stopped taking orders within the few international locations that also have the e on sale. Concurrent with that, a word on the e web page at Honda’s retail web site in Japan says, “Manufacturing of the Honda e will finish in January 2024. Honda e shall be discontinued as soon as the manufacturing run is bought out.” That ends the brief lifetime of an electrical darling applauded for its design and shunned for its worth and compromises.
The e debuted on the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Present, occurring sale abroad the next 12 months in two trims. If an fanatic had wished for a 1975 Honda Civic CVCC made for the electrical period, this was it. Cute and classy outdoors, inviting supplies inside if a bit of heavy on the screens, loads of tech, and a 14-foot turning circle. These have been the successful bits that inspired 22,000 folks to register their curiosity within the e when Honda was nonetheless displaying prototypes.
The powertrain and vary particulars, mixed with the value, did not win many precise patrons. The bottom 134-horsepower model began at €33,470 in Germany (about $36K in at the moment’s {dollars}) earlier than electrical automobile subsidies. The 152-hp Advance trim added €3,000 to the value. Each trims used the identical powertrain, a 37.5-kWh battery rated to get an estimated 220 WLTP kilometers (137 miles) on a cost, the distinction being the Advance acquired a bit of extra commonplace tools and a faster 0-62 mph time of 8 seconds. By this 12 months, the Advance was the one trim left, and it value €40,000 in Germany ($43,000) — a troublesome promote when the Volkswagen ID.3 begins on the similar worth and comes with extra room, extra energy, and greater than double the vary. AN reported that Honda wished to promote 10,000 models in Europe yearly, however the e won’t have discovered 10,000 patrons on the continent throughout its total run.
A Honda assertion on the automobile’s demise mentioned it lured “many new prospects to the model with its distinctive design, superior expertise and trademark Honda driving dynamics [and] spearheaded [the brand’s] technique to affect one hundred pc of Honda’s mainstream European line up by 2022.”
The battery-electric Honda e:NY1 is already on sale in Germany to exchange the e, priced at €47,990 for an SUV kind issue and driving place and a spread of 412 kilometers (256 miles). For our market and the remainder of the world, Honda’s planning an EV showcase of world fashions at subsequent 12 months’s Shopper Electronics Present.