Part of the battle for electric vehicles (EVs) is simply knowing the market, and while Tesla has certainly demonstrated its knowledge of the EV market in the past, the company’s still missing the bar on a compact hatchback for the European market. Honda, on the other hand, is not.
Within the past month, the Honda e was released in Europe as both a luxury and compact city driving vehicle, as shared by Autoblog. The car is Honda’s first all-electric car, and it was purposely designed with shorter trips in mind.
The Honda e, primarily designed for city driving, has a driving range of just 137 miles (220 km) per charge, as compared to many other long-range EVs, some of which were made to drive as far as 350 miles (563 km) on a single charge.
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While onlookers have wondered whether major EV companies might collaborate with Tesla on long-range battery capacity options, Honda says the e was made to have a shorter capacity, and working on it themselves certainly saved them some money on the build. On top of that, it was of high importance that the company’s first EV be small and easy to cruise around the city with.
Tomofumi Ichinose, chief engineer of the Honda e, told reporters earlier this week, “Most EVs use large capacity batteries, but often, much of that capacity goes unused during city driving.” He continued, saying, “We question whether larger vehicles are appropriate for urban areas, and believe that smaller is a better option for cities.”
While Tesla has said it may be working on a Model 3 style hatchback, Honda is already there and will likely reap the benefits of offering the first compact EV hatchback to a European market.
