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Honda’s affordable EV hot hatch is ‘selling like hotcakes,’ priced at $21,000 (electrek.co)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/electricvehicles@slrpnk.net
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[–] 29 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (9 children)

This is what I’ve wanted for a while. Small, electric, simple. Decent range too. Now when can I buy it in the states? Oh wait never… man fuck these American car manufacturers. I don’t want a giant SUV or a king cab pickup that I can’t see a full grown adult directly in front of me.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    I went to an ATM in this fancier suburb on my way to meet up with a friend a while back, and they had this thing raised up so high because of all the SUVs and pickups that people must drive around there, I had to unbuckle just to insert my card. I was mildly infuriated in my little rusty sedan.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I went to the grocery store the other day and there was this oversized pavement princess that the hood was literally taller than me standing directly in front of it. If I hadn’t been alone I would have gotten someone to take a pic. I’m 5’10”.

    It reminds me of this graphic.

    And this only goes up to 1.43m. This truck was at least 1.8m.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    You have drive-through ATMs?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago*

    Fairly common in suburbs, drive put the card put money or get money, roll away. Thing is when everything is cursed with a mile of parking lots in any direction getting places in a car is the only resort. Yeah people can bike, but today in Sofla was 33c feels like 39c, and rains in the afternoon dropped about 20mm of water in 45 mins...

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    • [–] [S] 25 points 5 months ago* (9 children)

    Since opening preorders in Japan on April 21, Kawasaka said the new EV has secured over 7,000 reservations in about a month

    The Super-ONE is powered by the same 29.6 kWh battery as the N-ONE e, offering a WLTP driving range of up to 274 km (170 miles) with fast charging (up to 80%) capabilities in about 30 minutes.

    After launching in Japan, the Super-One will go on sale in Europe, the UK, Australia, and other overseas markets shortly.

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  • [–] 23 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    and other overseas markets shortly.

    Such aaaaas... Manifest Destiny Land?

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  • [–] 24 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Haha good one. That government will block it from ever reaching its shores. It'll be a pleasant surprise if it happens though.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    30 kWh and 170 miles range?! That's >5 mi/kWh, I haven't seen anything run that well (consistently). Big if true for everyone - I'd buy one in an instant if Honda had a little more BEV chops, I'm still a bit skeptical of them.

    My first EV was an eGolf with a 24 kWh battery. At its peak that was 100 mi range (was rated 80-something). Would have killed for this back then.

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    • [–] 24 points 5 months ago

    No shit, an electric hatchback has got to be fun as hell to drive and infinitely more practical than 99% of hulking, maintenance prone ICE cars.

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    [–] 24 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Goddamnit, why wasn't this a thing 3 years ago, when we were LOOKING for an EV in this price-range?

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago

    Because the industry is consolidated enough that it’s possible for them ignore consumer preference and focus on high margin, low capital investment projects to pump stock values.

    Now there is a set of new competitors not beholden to the pressure of the US/Japanese/European/Korean stock markets that are threatening to take massive market share, (Chinese EV companies).

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    • [–] 30 points 5 months ago

    Renault has also sold out its EV Renault 5 Turbo 3E.

    The winners in this transition will be manufacturers who design EVs to sell, not EVs designed to generate hate for EVs.

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    [–] 87 points 5 months ago (24 children)

    ...with a fake 7-speed transmission and Active Sound Control system to emulate the sounds and jerk feeling of an old-school internal combustion engine...

    WTF

    Aah, it's for jerks

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  • [–] 64 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    As long as you can turn it off... People who want that really do baffle me, though

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  • [–] 30 points 5 months ago

    My 2019 VW GTI has this, not because it's electric and has no engine, but because the sound dampening between the engine bay and cabin is so good that the engineers thought it necessary. It's the first thing I disabled. So dumb.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    I want that. It sounds genuinely fun. Hyundai's Ioniq 5 N has that sort of thing and it got a ton of positive reviews.

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  • [–] 22 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    They could have leaned into it and have F&F mode where it’s just up shifting constantly as you’re cruising at 30mph

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Maybe they could make a mode where the electric vehicle UFO noise they make so you can hear them coming gets louder when you accelerate

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  • [–] 17 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    I've heard of some people feeling motion sick without the same feedback as an ICE vehicle. Could be helpful for them.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Annectodal, but whatever acceleration curve Toyota uses in its hybrids makes me sick so quickly. I haven't had many problems in Chevy PHEVs or EVs, teslas, or Kia EVs, but I do often get motion sick in ICE vehicles. Not as badly as Toyota hybrids though.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    might just be their suspension setup on the hybrids

    I remember when I test drove a fourth gen Outback and it felt worse than a van. that was enough to prove they had killed the wagon for good

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    I'm not sure how much mass they have, but they have a full ICE engine plus batteries. It could just be an issue with how much it weighs and the suspension. I somewhat doubt it's the acceleration curves alone, but I don't know. If it doesn't happen in other vehicles, it seems odd that it'd be that specific curve that's the issue.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    People get motion sick in EVs because they are heavy and the suspension has a hard time damping. It has nothing to do with "ICE feedback". It's the same effect as seasickness.

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  • [–] -3 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    I do wish they had better soundproofing though. No engine noise means you hear all these annoying sounds from tires on the road unless you turn your radio up to ear damaging levels. On my commute there is an area that had temporary lane markings during construction and the method they used to remove them roughed up the tarmac in a way that makes the tires go "meep meep meep meep" while you drive over them, and they're right where most tires are when driving in the middle of the lane. When I drive my IC car I can't hear them, but if I'm driving my wife's EV I either have to hug one side of the lane, crank up the radio, or have my nerves set on edge by this horrible sound.

    EVs all day in general, I'll make the switch when the time for a new car comes, but this aspect of them does suck.

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  • [–] -1 points 5 months ago* (3 children)

    EVs have special low noise tires with a foam liner. Also, you have misophonia.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Thank you for your diagnosis Dr SaveTheTuaHawk, rest assured I'll give it exactly the amount of weight it deserves.

    I'm pretty sure most people find irregularly spaced high-pitched buzzing noises unpleasant; smoke detectors don't play lullabies for a reason.

    The lack of engine noise making every road sound and creak from the car audible is a common complaint. Just because EVs are superior, doesn't make them perfect.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    It's a common and totally fair enough complaint in terms of subjective aesthetic enjoyment, but it's not physically possible that the lack of engine noise results in overall more noise which would make it necessary to turn up the stereo louder than otherwise necessary in order to drown it out. Combustion engine cars have tires too.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago*

    Oh no, obviously overall they're quieter, that's why you can hear all that stuff. It's always been there, just masked by the engine. I'm saying IC engines act as a kind of white noise machine that drownes out the rest, and in the absence of that, my only option is louder music.

    And again, I'm not knocking EVs in general, they're superior and I'm making the switch next car purchase, but if it was possible (I know it's not) to get Rolls Royce levels of sound proofing without unreasonable costs, I would prefer it.

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    • [–] 24 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    Performance sounds about like my Leaf after upgrading the battery. This part made me lol tho: " fake 7-speed transmission and Active Sound Control system to emulate the sounds and jerk feeling of an old-school internal combustion engine (ICE) sports car." No thanks, but I'd buy the non-sports model they based it on.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Engineering Explained tested out Hyundai's offering if an electric car with shifting. I tend to agree with most of what he says on his channel, and he's certainly a gear head, so I trust that it can be implemented in a fun way.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I tend to agree with most of what he says on his channel

    Careful with that guy, he reads off corporate scripts a lot. And for a gear head, he makes a lot of stupid purchases.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    I agree we should be careful with his sponsored videos. But i do appreciate that he makes it so obvious when he reads from the talking points they give him. I don't think he has a bad track record as such with cars. I think he just enjoys trying new things with his second car, as he seems to always have an ol' reliable one off to the side.

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    • [–] 8 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Sometimes I wonder what the heyday of "hotcakes" must have been like to have become the reference point for a customer frenzy.

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    • [–] 6 points 5 months ago

    I dig the kinda subdued rocket rabbit kit look.

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    [–] 16 points 5 months ago (14 children)

    assuming the following is true, this is a new car I would actually buy

    • no LED headlights (they are dangerous and rude)

    • you can disable the fake engine noise and transmission behaviour

    • the touchscreen is minimal and crucial controls are not locked behind menus or on the touchscreen in the first place

    • there aren't excessive privacy concerns or lockouts preventing user maintenance

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (3 children)

    The last two points are very valid but I think the fake engine noise while driving is pretty important for safety, no? Personally, I cant drive and usually get around by bike or on foot where a car that's totally silent can be dangerous if you don't see it coming

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    so, I meant fake engine noise in the cabin, not external noise

    however, I'm also against that godawful sound that cars make at low speed. it's infuriatingly disturbing. their tires make enough goddamn noise already. I understand the reason for it, and it accomplishes its job, and my opinion is that I hate it. I hate-stare at drivers whose vehicle is making that whirring noise whenever one is near me

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (7 children)

    no LED headlights (they are dangerous and rude)

    Can you explain why you think LED headlights are either of those?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    they're blinding, preventing oncoming people from being able to see. and because lowbeams are just as bright as highbeams, just aimed lower, even lowbeams blind people. drive anywhere in a hilly area and this becomes apparent.

    they're also obscene to be blasting into pedestrian and cyclist eyes in low speed neighbourhoods with streetlights. like how would those drivers feel if I walked around with a 4000lumen flashlight pointed at their eyes as they drive.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    are you sure that the light source itself is the problem, though?

    with proper housing and aiming there's nothing special about LED light compared to xenon or halogen that makes it any more blinding.

    the problem is automakers and wildly outdated regulation allowing automakers to make their shit as bright as they can legally maneuver around. not the specific type of light source.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago*

    They do it because they get saftey ratings which are occupant based.

    You want the absolutely brightest, longest shining lights possible to light up as much of the road as possible, but that has consequences for others.

    Theyre probably bumping up against whatever high end limits are allowed before the saftey agencies cause a fuss.

    But while it might solve one problem fixing this issue, it will probably cause another, e.g more people will be overdriving their lights.

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  • [–] -1 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    oh, they could absolutely make LEDs in an acceptable manner. but they don't.

    there's some more inherent difficulty with getting LEDs to be acceptable, as well. not to mention the way they're built nowadays means they're not easily replaceable.

    however, your comment about aiming is completely incorrect. aiming is irrelevant, because roads have curves and elevation changes and bumps. lights need to not be so dangerously blinding even if pointed straight at somebody's face, because they will be pointed straight at somebody's face for many non-negligible occurrences. I know this because it happens to me every fucking night I'm outside around cars.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    again your complaint has nothing to do with the light source. you're (rightfully, I agree!) talking about brightness, nothing to do with how the photos are generated, just how many are being generated.

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    • [–] 4 points 5 months ago* (5 children)

    Oh hey, a car that's basically what I wanted. A reasonably sized and priced electric hatchback.

    Not in the market for a new car though

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    US is not one of their listed market options/ambitions.

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    • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    BYD should get in this hot hatch business and make a sporty version of one of their small models

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)
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    • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    I just did an informal poll at my workplace and nobody is terribly interested in hot cakes.

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    [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    Honestly didn't expect this from Honda. I hope they continue to produce more cheap EVs.

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