The Auto Trader expert verdict: ★★★★★ 4.75

The Honda e has been a hot topic since it’s arrival to our Honda dealerships in July. The expert team at Autotrader took some time to review everything about it – here’s some of the key highlights of what they had to say.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but, please, look at this car. How could you not love it? While other brands have tempted electric car buyers with a glimpse of the future, Honda has tugged at heart strings with a vibrant, quirky nod to the Swinging 60s. The small battery means low range but short charging time. Pays your money, takes your choice…

No ‘road tax’ for 2020, no congestion charge, no Benefit In Kind tax for fleet users, low insurance, and, Parkers reckons, £1 will get you 24 miles if you’re charging at home, which is a darn sight cheaper than fuelling it for 24 miles

Reliability of a Honda e - 5/5

“Hondas are well known for their excellent engineering and build quality, and thus their longevity. Prices are high, but so are residual values, as a general rule of thumb. The Honda e sits on a new platform, with Honda’s first application of this electric technology, plus all the new connectivity software and screens inside, so we’ll need to wait and see what problems, if any, arise. You get Honda’s standard three-year warranty.”

Safety for a Honda e - 4/5

“Honda’s fantastic advanced safety package, Honda Sensing, comes as standard on the Honda e. You get adaptive cruise control, collision mitigation which senses when you might collide with a car, cyclist or pedestrian and applies the brakes (now improved to cope with night-time conditions), lane-keep assistance, road-departure mitigation to stop you straying off the side of the road if tired, traffic-sign recognition and intelligent speed limiter which holds the speed of the car to below that stated on road signs.”

In addition, the Honda e comes with cameras instead of wing mirrors, as standard. The camera image is relayed on screens inside the car, at either end of the dashboard. The images are crystal clear, can have their angles adjusted like ordinary mirrors, and provide a better view in the dark than traditional mirrors.”

How comfortable is the Honda e - 4/5

“Impressive for such a small car. Make no mistake, the e is not Ford Fiesta or VW Polo size but, rather, more like a Fiat 500, Toyota Aygo or similar. It still feels very light and airy, the horizontal design of the dash and screens accentuating the sense of width and space.

You get USB charging points and an entire three-pin plug socket up front, and there’s a pull-out cupholder. The rear seat is a simple bench but swathed in the same grey cloth used on the doors, and leg space in the rear will be fine for most adults on the short hops the Honda e is capable of on one charge. The boot is big enough only for a few bags, but we’d rather have that rear leg space anyway.”using petrol or diesel. Go for an electric-car tariff and you could recharge for as little as £3.”

Features of the Honda e - 5/5

“If the Honda e looks appealing from the outside, wait until you sit in it. A bank of large screens flows the width of the windscreen and houses myriad functions, apps and activities. Bookending it on either side are the screens for the ‘mirrors’.

You can look at information about the state of battery charge and how to preserve it, switch to sat-nav, DAB, Apple CarPlay, flick between apps, or turn the whole bank into a moving digital aquarium of tropical fish, swimming among the waving coral.”

Power for a Honda e 4/5

“There are two options: the standard Honda e, with 136 horsepower, and the Honda e Advance, which costs a couple of grand more and has 154 horsepower and hits 0-62mph in 8.3 seconds. The former is good for a maximum 137 miles, the latter with 17-inch wheels slicing that to just 125 miles. That range puts it on a par with the Mini Electric and far short of the Renault Zoe, Peugeot e-208 or Nissan Leaf, all of which comfortably top 200 miles.

However, they all take about seven hours to charge on a domestic wallbox, whereas the Honda takes just four hours, or 30 minutes at a public rapid charging point

You also get normal and sport driving modes, and can switch to one-pedal driving, where easing off the throttle acts as braking and conserves the energy. Unlike most other EVs, you can then modulate the severity of the one-pedal effect from mild retardation, to a complete stop without touching the brakes. We also like the unapologetic celebration of the charging point on the car - Honda has made a feature of it, sticking the black plastic lid and housing right in the middle of the bonnet.”

Read the full Autotrader review here.​