The Honda Urban EV concept grabbed the headlines at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show with its retro cute looks and diminutive size, harking back to the first generation Civic. If you’ve been pinning to find out how the production version is going to look like, all will be revealed in the forthcoming Geneva Motor Show starting 5th March 2019.
But even from teaser image released by Honda, the multi-screen display of the compact electric car does show the greenhouse of the Urban EV largely sticking to the concept shown at Frankfurt in 2017, but it will be a 5-door instead of a 3-door hatch, with its charging receptacle on its bonnet, and minus those oversized white alloys, of course.
Apart from the wrap-around LCD display, it appears Honda isn’t abandoning physical controls just yet with a conventional climate control interface and various hard switches under the large piece of ‘wood’ trim (not sure if it’s real or simulated) that runs across the dash. If you’re wondering why the two-spoke steering, well, the first generation Civic had that, so Honda is clearly taking this retro business quite seriously.
The Honda Urban EV is expected to hit showrooms in Europe and Japan late this year, no mechanical specs been revealed yet, but a 30kWh-capacity lithium ion battery pack powering a front mounted electric motor, with a range of up to 400km wouldn’t be far off the mark.
