Honda E

So over a year later I ended up going for that test drive after all...

I bought one last July in the blue, done nearly 8k km including back and forward to scotland - any questions ask away.

it’s a great wee car but has some issues, it replaced a 2017 i3 I had (also great).

the esim in the Honda is still not activated in Ireland so still no app for Irish customers. they told me a few months in July and it was still a few months away in December

the Garmen built in sat nav has charging stations but my version is 2020 and I have not updated it yet to the 2021 version but even so the station list will be well out of date

there is a button that shows on most screens to press to guide you a nearby station but it always produces a server error message as the esim is not activated - I assumed it checks for updates to station locations

so you have an electric car that cannot guide you to current chargers!

as I was told, use CarPlay and one of the nav programs

all very well if you have the appropriate phone and it’s charged up of course

have you ever heard of a new car with no low windscreen washer warning? Well none in the Honda so that must have saved them €1 in parts!

I do enjoy driving it though, not in one pedal mode as it’s very poor compared to the i3 and it will never come to a smooth stop

one peddle actually uses the physical brakes too much instead of re gen, lots of brake dust which I never experienced on the i3

there is discussion on the Honda forum that range is always better if you do not use one peddle, the re gen is quite poor overall

Much better handling than the i3 and a joy to drive on the country roads. I got one for two days to test and gave it a good spin around the Wicklow mountains.

it has ‘road departure mitigation’ that tugs the wheel if it thinks you are straying, an absolute pain on smaller roads - it’s 3 button presses to get to it, switch it off and return to whatever display but that and selecting sport is a must do on each start up for me

No faults as such to report although the drivers screen got stuck thinking I was getting a call at the weekend and I had to do a reset - the stick screen meant I could not see the gom. I had a few wallpapers and clock faces that I now need to reload and all my button arrangements have to be re done and other settings, probably 30 mins to set it all up again and re download the aquarium

No regrets, fun car even with the short range which is about 60km less than the i3 33kWh

I did not realise you bought it, good health it’s a great choice - I bought it knowing the range and have no issues.

if you do frequent short journeys especially at this time of year you will see available range drop like a stone. Its because it uses lots of juice to heat the battery, after a longer journey the gom will go up

would you mind letting me know what software versions you have? Last time back in November I was told there was no updates but I am not so sure, this was from the dealer who never asked what versions I had.

I'm looking at buying a used Honda e if anybody here knows of somebody looking to sell. Would prefer white or blue. Great little city cars! Very loveable

I'm not surprised. I have only ever seen one on the road around Tallaght and nowhere else. I would say they had a miniscule sales impact here.

Not much of a surprise really.

They’ve sold roughly 100 of them here, one is in my driveway. It’s a brilliant little thing for urban driving.

The most frustrating thing about the small range is actually that it’s so well sorted to drive that long runs are great in it.

Have you seen their prices?

A Civic is €49,000. For a petrol car (Ok a hybrid) the size of a Focus.

You can put a Tesla 3 on the road for thousands less.

I don't think Honda have any interest in selling cars in Europe.

You can blame the boy races for that. Honda started to price there cars higher because boy racers were buying them and Honda was getting a bad reputation and then Insurance companies started to charge more to insure Hondas so no one or very few bought them as they were to expensive for what they were and too expensive compared to the competition to insure.

The boy racers all started to move to VWs then and the Hondas started to disappear.

There getting there.

Where as if they had if it called it “E Honda “ it would have sold loads.

Honda are finished in Ireland, just a matter of time. They have priced themselves out of the market. Went into the Honda dealership in Kilkenny a few weeks ago to see the new Civic and they had no Hondas at all. Salesman told me he couldn't sell them because of the price. He told me other dealers are doing the same. Pity, I drove Honda cars for 25 years and loved them.