Looking to get in step with other automakers’ electrification aspirations, Honda is showing off its Urban EV Concept at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show. Taking obvious inspiration from the Honda Civic’s early days, the Urban EV Concept would look as much at home on the side of a street as it would at your local cars and coffee.
As tends to be the case with auto show concepts, the Urban EV has some strange-but-highbrow features, like a cool steering wheel, suicide doors and lighting displays all over the exterior. And the concept sports a massive media screen that also appears to be the instrument panel. If you think this concept looks small, don’t get your eyes checked — you’re right. This tiny concept is about 4 inches shorter than Honda’s smallest export, the Fit.
Five questions with Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo
Like most of his predecessors, Honda Motor Co. president Takahiro Hachigo, 58, is an engineer by trade. He was deputy chief engineer for the second-generation Odyssey minivan, chief engineer for the …
While there are no real specs on this auto show concept, it did debut alongside what Honda calls the Honda Power Manager Concept, which is a system that stores energy at your home. That battery system can then backfeed the grid and make you some money.
We don’t know if the Power Manager Concept will see much use, but, according to Honda president and CEO Takahiro Hachigo, this concept isn’t far from reality. Hachigo said, “This is not some vision of the distant future; a production version of this car will be here in Europe in 2019.” If this is the future of Honda’s electric car push, we have to say we’re pleased with what we see. As with the CR-V Hybrid, there’s no word on whether it will make the jump to North America, but we’re always up for surprises.