Honda brings its £20,000 electric kei car to the UK as a Twingo rival – with ‘manual’ gearbox and exhaust note
The Honda Super-N, a new compact EV inspired by the 1980s City Turbo II, is coming to the UK this July with prices starting under £20,000.Engineered on the brand’s lightweight N Series ‘Kei’ car platform, the city car features an e-Axle that delivers 63bhp (95bhp via boost mode), a simulated seven-speed transmission and artificial engine noises to mimic the feel of a combustion-engined car. The Super-N offers a combined electric range of 128 miles, extending to 199 miles on the urban cycle.Honda UK boss Rebecca Adamson says the car is not intended as a successor for the dearly departed Honda E – despite the obvious visual and conceptual links.It’s still “a very funky, cute Honda,” she acknowledges, but “not based on the E in any way.” Instead, Honda’s second take on a funky electric city car for the UK is a hot version of the N-One E it sells in Japan – which is, itself, based on the petrol-powered N-One kei car.In Japan, it’s called the Super-One but it can’t take that name here because a national karting league has the rights to it. There’s also a taller, longer MPV version that has sliding doors and is endlessly adorable, but there’s no word on that coming to the UK – yet.Are you keeping up? The long and (very) short of it is that the Super-N measures just 3.4m nose to tail, has a 2.5m wheelbase, weighs a little over 1300kg, seats four and looks oh-so very cute, even in the feistier performance garb it’ll wear in the UK – part of a package of market-specific adaptations that also brings a fake manual gearbox and fruity ‘engine’ note.
