It’s billed as Honda’s first EV for the European market, but after giving Honda’s Urban EV Concept the once over, we reckon demand will be pretty strong here in Australia.

If you’ve despaired at some of Honda’s styling efforts of late, the Urban EV concept is going to come as a breath of fresh air. The deliberately simple, old-school silhouette conceals some neat details such as the front-hinged ‘suicide’ doors and a Honda emblem backlit in blue, a feature set to become an emblem of electric Hondas.

The cabin is minimalist and features a floating dashboard console, a huge interior touch screen, and a panoramic windscreen that wraps around onto the doors. This helps reduce the size of the car’s windscreen pillars, increasing visibility in concert with wing mirrors that comprise of dinky digital camera displays.

The concept as displayed can seat four occupants, although it’s likely that a production version will feature a more conventional three-seat rear bench.

Honda has yet to release details of the powertrain, but the Urban EV will feature a high-density lightweight battery pack, integrated heat management, and energy transfer functions both to and from the vehicle, allowing owners to potentially run their houses at peak time from battery power that’s charged at night time rates.

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