Honda is serious about making retro cars with EV powertrains. Many Japanese automakers have done this in recent years, but only for the kei car market. The Camry and Civic have all tired to look as futuristic as possible.
But the Honda Sports EV Concept, together with its Urban EV sister car, have shown the crowd gathered in Tokyo that there's another way. Sure, the designers got rid of the door mirrors and fitted quite a few screens inside. But everything else reminds us of an era when men grew beards and wore tweed jackets.
During its short press launch, Honda described the newer study as “a concept model which combines EV performance and AI (artificial intelligence) inside a compact body with the aim to realize the joy of driving the user can feel a sense of unity with the car.”
We already saw this retro approach to design with the Urban EV, a car which everybody called an electric Mk1 Golf lookalike. But here is Honda taking criticism in its stride and coming up on top with a sportscar as well.
Right now, the Japanese automaker is undeniably working on a mid-engined successor to the S2000. It's likely to be powered by the Civic Type R engine and look a lot like the NSX. However, the market for an affordable electric sports car is undeniably there, and this carmaker thinks it doesn't necessarily have to look futuristic.
While everybody is trying to put sharp enough edges that you could cut yourself on a car, the Sports and Urban EVs have soft contours. When is the last time you saw a car that doesn't have a chin spoiler?
Also, their unique headlights emote and "hide" underneath pieces of perspex plastic. There's a charge indicator on the side and text can be displayed on exterior screens.
Photos of the interior aren't available right now, but we expect it to have barely any physical controls. Also, there should be screens built into the doors displaying the feed from the outboard motors.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News