Honda announced on October 14 that the company will be pushing forward a new brand titled e:N in the Chinese market by co-developing with two joint ventures, and showcased five models at once, which will be available to the public in Spring 2022 at the earliest.
Honda is working with two joint ventures, Dongfeng Honda and Guangqi Honda, on the marching towards the Chinese EV market by announcing five models under the new BEV brand e:N that will be available in spring 2022 at the earliest. The auto manufacturer also swore to be only selling EVs in the Chinese market by 2030.
Honda showcased three concept BEVs for this online announcement, including the four-door GT, two-door hatchback, and a SUV, which will become actual product for purchase within the next five years, though Honda has only revealed two actual products, e:NS1 and e:NP1.
▲The two new EVs of Honda look almost identical to HR-V.
The two cars are of the same model, but one of them is e:NS1 that is being produced by Dongfeng Honda, while another e:NP1 is being manufactured by Guangqi Honda. The two models are 87% similar to that of Honda HR-V in terms of the look, and the only distinguishable difference lies on the radiator grill behind the Honda logo at the front of the vehicle, with the EV version being a cover for the charging port.
Both e:NS1 and e:NP1 are adopted with a front-wheel motor configuration, with a power of 150kW (approx. 201hp), and a maximum speed of roughly 150km/h. The 68.8kWh battery unit can provide 500km of driving range (NEDEC standard), with an actual driving at about 460-400km in accordance with past experience, which is barely enough.
What’s different is that despite an almost identical design to that of HR-V, the model is built with the new chassis e:N Architecture F of Honda, which looks like a strong password of some sort that bears relevance to the new chassis e:Architecture previously announced by Honda, who has yet to provide any relevant details.
▲ The three concept e:N EVs presented by Honda sort of look like an integration between the Cybertruck and Foxconn EVs.
Honda announced the termination of fossil-fuel vehicle sales in Europe last year, followed by the proposal of the strategic target that pertains to a comprehensive elimination of internal combustion engines, including its sub brand Acura. In order to attain the particular target, Honda not only carries on with the R&D of hydrogen cars, but also works with GM on developing new EV architectures, as well as solid-state batteries and fuel cell trucks, so as to handle the demand from the US market.
Dongfeng Honda and Guangqi Honda will be constructing respective EV plants that will not only supply to the domestic Chinese market, but also import to Europe or other markets by taking cues from Tesla’s sales model.
(Cover photo source: Honda)