At the time, Honda’s chief officer of automobile operations Katsushi Inoue told us the brand was “at the development stage” and that “eventually, in the future, [Honda] will talk about smaller vehicles”.
It turns out that the “future” has arrived, because just half a year on from CES, the company has shown its possible rival to the latest MINI Cooper and Fiat 500e, as well as budget newcomers such as the BYD Dolphin Surf and Citroen e-C3.
How does the Super EV fit into Honda’s electric car plans?
Inoue told us at CES that a future Honda sub-£30,000 EV would need to sit outside the brand’s new seven-car 0 Series platform, confirming that the architecture wouldn’t support anything smaller than a Honda Civic-sized family hatchback. “We are thinking about it away from 0 Series,” he said.
Of the seven cars confirmed under the 0 Series plan between now and 2030, the SUV and saloon will reach global markets from next year, with a baby SUV to be revealed in 2026 – at this stage only confirmed for Asian markets, although Europe is a possibility. A larger seven-seat SUV in 2027 is likely to be only for the US market.
Beyond that, a small SUV is expected in 2028, a year ahead of another smaller SUV, plus a compact saloon by the end of the decade.
Although China and Japan are the target markets for the smallest SUV coming next year, Honda’s BEV general manager Mitsuru Kariya admitted that he would like to see the baby electric SUV come to European markets as well.
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