If you've been following my 15-month (and counting) ownership of a Honda e, you'll know I have been charging almost entirely at home via a 13-amp plug into my standard home socket.
I plan to install Honda's clever new 'e-Progress' intelligent charger, but that's still a while away. Meanwhile, I've become an advocate for slow charging. I plug in the car each evening and it's (usually) fully charged by 9am the next day.
So, why pay £550 plus for a faster charger? I'll tell you why. I've just had an Alfen Eve Pro-line charger fitted and, well, I admit I was misguided. It's much more convenient. I am on the Octopus Go tariff, which has a stunningly cheap rate of 5p per kWh between 00:30 and 04:30. That's enough to put at least 75 percent back into the battery. Thus I am charging at a third of the cost I was previously.
The Honda is really clever. Not only can I set the in-car timer to ensure it doesn't start charging until half past midnight, but the built-in geolocation means I can set this to apply only when I'm at home. If I am away, charging happens any time I need it.
There is an insanity in the on-board timer setup, with a sort of reverse logic that forces you to set the times you don't want charging to happen. This has caused much discussion on the Honda forums. Otherwise, it seems both bulletproof and child's play to use.
The pop-up flap on the centre of the bonnet opens at the touch of a button, then I simply plug in. The charger is live all the time, so there's no need to switch it on and off.
Because I previously used a standard household socket, I've been accustomed to charging from inside the garage - an arrangement I have kept. I realise that there's some virtue signalling to be gained from having a car charger on your outside wall, but since when did a piece of electrical equipment screwed to your home improve its look? So far, the in-garage arrangement works just fine.
Getting the installation done was far more involved than I ever imagined. British Gas has an installation service called Local Heroes. The first stage was a 50-minute survey, which was done remotely via my mobile phone. British Gas took control of my camera and I pointed it at my fuse board and other areas of electrical circuitry.
We then established there was too little power coming into the house to run a car charger, mainly because the house fuse was a mere 60 amps.
That meant UK Power had to come out (twice) and uprate the fuse to 100 amps. Finally, British Gas were here for half a day to install the Alfen Eve Pro-line. It's not the quick fix I expected, but I was impressed with the professionalism of British Gas.
A week in, all seems to be well. I can hardly tell you how satisfying it is to see all my recharging happening at such a low cost in the middle of the night.
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Ho hum. After the schadenfreude of the petrol and diesel shortage, we electric car owners are not getting off scot-free. Prices for electricity follow those of gas, which have gone stratospheric.
Whoever or whatever you blame - big business, the Russians, Covid or Brexit - it seems to be a one-way street right now.
My Octopus Go home electricity tariff remains at 5p per kilowatt-hour for a four-hour period overnight. However, as I still charge via my three-pin plug into a 13-amp domestic socket, most of the charge is at the full rate of 16p. Things should have changed by now, yet the promise of a Honda-branded charger still seems as tenuous as ever.
The major pledge with this, admittedly expensive, Honda system is that, in conjunction with the Octopus Agile tariff, it will smartly charge when the electricity cost is lowest, without any input from me.
Meanwhile, I have experienced how the other half live, travelling with a friend in his Porsche Taycan 4S. We had a 250-mile trip and an official range of 288 miles, but 230 was more realistic - so we'd need at least one refuelling stop.
The trouble was, Litchfield had no rapid chargers, so Andrew drove six miles and sat in a pub car park for an hour to get us through the weekend. Then we still had to stop again on the way home. How everyone else laughed.
The other half-a-dozen cars managed the weekend without refuelling at all, and most find the idea of a £100,000 electric Porsche simply nonsensical.
I do understand that point of view. And although the Taycan is pretty special, it doesn't tug at the heartstrings like the Honda e. Once you get past the insane acceleration at low speeds - painful for passengers - it's just too anodyne to fall in love with. Mind you, I'd say the same of Teslas, so it's a matter of personal perspective.
Even though my wife and I both love my Honda (for different reasons) I still far from understand the charging routines of electric cars in general. At the 300kW Gridserve charge point at junction one on the M6, the Porsche would only recharge at 50kW on the first point, and 100kW once we switched to another. Why not the full 300kW? No one knows.
At home, my 13-amp socket allows 3kw, yet the Honda never draws close to this, so takes much longer to recharge. It's all a bit of a pain, not helped by obfuscation by all the key players in this game.
I wait with baited breath so see how quickly my new Honda charger functions - once it eventually arrives.
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What a difference another 50 miles of range makes! What was just 70 miles in the winter has transformed in the summer, like the ugly duckling, into a reading of at least 120 miles on the trip computer. That's as long as I don't do anything daft - like drive fast. Which the Honda e has a way of encouraging you to do in the right circumstances.
That steering is truly great. With the front wheels detached from the need to provide power to the road (the e is unusual in this class for being rear-wheel drive) there is genuine feel and precision to be found when placing the car through the bends. Who says electric cars are anodyne?
The looks don't get any less engaging either. There is still nothing that comes even close to the Honda in terms of style. I've always been a fan of round headlights and the e sports this retro cue to perfection.
So all is good with Honda e almost one year on. However, the first service is now due, and to my mind it should cost me next to nothing. Rather naughtily, Honda offers a five-year service plan for £659 for the e, which is only £40 (or £8 per service) less than for a CR-V - an SUV that must take longer to service and cost far more in parts. I'll let you know how the one-off 12-month service goes in my next report.
I have also 'started my journey' towards Honda's e:Progress flexible charging system. I have been waiting for the final production charger to be released for, well, a year, but I'm assured it's just around the corner.
So, I made the necessary switch to Octopus Energy, then bedded in for a month with a standard tariff before being allowed to move to Agile Octopus. This takes half-hourly meter readings and allows me to look online to see when the lowest electric rates are over the next 24 hours. The e:Progress system, when it is up and running, will automatically choose the cheapest time to charge my car.
Brilliant! Or I hope so. But having moved to the Agile Octopus tariff, I have discovered electricity rates are much higher than on Octopus Go, the original electric car tariff from Octopus. Someone needs to get their ducks in a row here. And allow me to switch tariffs immediately without a minimum 30-day wait.
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This month's report is a little different. For some time, we have been trying to get answers to the questions that owners and prospective buyers have about the Honda e.
This isn't the sort of information you'll find in the brochure, but more in-depth details that required a technical boffin from Honda.
Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anyone in the UK able to help, so our request was bounced to Honda Motor Europe. The replies we received are in italics below.
Note, some of the answers aren't very detailed, so we've added our thoughts after the responses from Honda where helpful.
Firmware and software updates - when will they happen? Will they be over the air, like a Tesla?
Yes, over the air.
It's good news that any updates will happen automatically, but we still have no answer as to when, and quite how seamless they might be. Some new owners seem to be struggling with Honda dealers, who have difficulties setting up the e with its dedicated app.
What is the car's gross versus usable battery capacity?
The Honda e's battery capacity is 35.5kWh.
We understand that the gross capacity is 35.5kWh, but we believe the net capacity - the usable figure, in other words - is closer to 30kWh.
What is the Honda's e's overall efficiency figure, in either miles or kilometres per kWh?
The efficiency is not currently standardised in homologation procedures and is therefore not communicated. It would not be comparable to any other figure from another car brand.
What about range and efficiency figures for the car in winter?
The driving range of all automobiles can be significantly affected by environmental and usage factors, including low ambient temperatures. For electric vehicles in particular, low temperatures can affect driving range significantly.
Honda internal testing shows that a selection of EVs experience a reduction in driving range at low and sub-zero temperatures. This is due to a number of factors, including:
Low ambient temperatures can also have a noticeable impact on charging, increasing the length of time for the battery to be fully charged.
Like all EVs, it is normal for Honda e to see increased energy consumption in colder temperatures. The Honda e may experience reduced vehicle range if operating in low ambient temperatures. To maximise the range, Honda strongly recommends your car is plugged in as much as possible before departure to use energy from the charging system, rather than the battery.
So, no specific information on the Honda e here.
It seems hard to achieve four miles per kWh consumption without an extreme driving style.
For electric cars, consumption is the opposite to petrol cars. In city usage with a lot of recuperation, consumption is much less than on motorways, where there is added air resistance.
Petrol cars tend to have best consumption per driven distance at around 90kph [56mph], since the engine is operating in its best efficiency area. For electric cars, the minimum can be achieved in city driving, where deceleration energy is being recuperated to a large extent. Also, the electric motor is not changing its efficiency when operated at low speed, which is the case for combustion engines.
This seems to bear out owners' experiences. Urban driving gives the best range, while motorway travel at 70mph knocks it back significantly. However, cruising at 65mph, or even 60mph, helps improve range immensely.
Honda e owners seem to love their cars. The only real complaints are about the range, which does not measure up to even the lower figures that Honda quotes, and the MyHonda App, which is troublesome.
We are delighted that owners are loving the Honda e. The range is governed by the physical capacity of the battery and the need to make it reliable. Our assurance of 70 percent battery capacity after eight years is conservative, we believe.
The range of the Honda e was also defined by the car's design, connectivity, dynamic performance and quality. We didn't sacrifice those values just for the sake of range.
The MyHonda App is currently undergoing significant upgrades to enhance usability and customer satisfaction.
How about an Economy Driving mode that would help owners get better mileage?
The Honda e does not feature an economy driving mode at present. Owners can, however, specify different settings through regenerative braking and the Sport mode if required.
The Renault Zoe with a 40kWh battery has a range about 50 percent greater than a Honda e with the 35 kWh battery. What creates this difference?
This is down to the philosophy of defining the lower limit of the battery capacity. Going into limp mode (the turtle icon on the display) does not mean the battery is physically empty. It simply means that the system is managing the battery to maintain its lifetime and durability.
The Honda e was originally advertised as being capable of 100kW CCS charging. This does not seem to have been carried through to the cars delivered.
The Honda e is capable of using 100kW CCS charge points. The maximum charging power depends on the maximum charging current, which again is limited by battery condition, temperature, state of charge and so on, to maintain durability.
In the real world, charging power might reach a maximum of 60-70kW, but only for a short time. The car will, on average, be charging at around 50kW.
Are special precautions needed to stop the 12v battery going flat? A few owners report this.
If the vehicle system is not switched on, the 12v battery is not charged by the high voltage battery. To make this happen, ignition must be on (the car saying 'READY') and the seatbelt fastened. This prevents the system shutting down and the 12v battery is charged by the high voltage system.
If only the ignition is activated, the 12v battery is not charged by the high voltage system and might run flat. The car will therefore ask to shut down the system to save battery power. However, if this is rejected and the Auto Power Off mode is cancelled, the 12V battery power is consumed without being charged and will go flat after a while.
Sometimes the handbrake comes on automatically when I switch the car off, other times it does not. Why is this?
If Auto Brake Hold is engaged, the parking brake will be activated when the car is switched off. If Auto Brake Hold is not selected, the brake won't be applied until the driver presses the switch.
Cordless phone charging - it's a surprise that this isn't offered?
Cordless charging is not available on the Honda e.
Our thoughts: cordless charging should be standard in a technically advanced car like the Honda e.
Is it safe to store the charge leads under the bonnet?
We don't recommend storing the leads under the front bonnet.
What's happening with e:Progress and other Honda home charging systems? They seem to be delayed.
Honda has confirmed a revised timescale for the introduction of its first energy services under the e:Progress brand. The first e:Progress services for the UK will come to market by the middle of 2021.
More details of Honda e:Progress were announced soon after we asked this question. The home charging system will use electricity from 100 percent renewable sources, supplied by Octopus Energy. By using intelligent software to charge the car - and power the owner's home - at the most cost-effective times, it promises cost savings of up to £475 per year versus a standard flat tariff. A vehicle-to-grid system called Honda Power Manager is also under development.
What about paint colours, new apps and new versions?
We can't comment on future plans at this stage.
What is the drag coefficient of the Honda e?
I'm afraid we can't disclose this information.
Honda makes a big deal about the low-drag door cameras, so it's odd that it won't divulge a standard piece of data like this.
What about the four-star Euro NCAP safety rating for the Honda e? Five stars is the expectation these days.
Safety is the number one priority for Honda when engineering any new car. Providing the most comprehensive suite of advanced safety features and driver aids in its class, the car performed exceptionally well under the latest Euro NCAP testing regime, which features new evaluations for crash avoidance, post-crash safety and the impact of larger vehicles on smaller ones. The Honda e's safety rating is competitive against other small EVs.
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Hey! Things are looking up! An extra 10 degrees centigrade has transformed my Honda e's abilities. The lockdown has meant that, like most cars, its mileage has been rather curtailed. Now, with the odometer approaching 3,000 miles, the little Honda is starting to feel nicely loosened up.
It's the outside temperature that really makes a difference, though. Once it reaches 10 degrees, the predicted range takes a quantum leap. Now it's possible to travel 100 miles before a recharge once again, even though you must be prepared to run the Honda e much closer to the refuel wire than you'd ever do in a petrol or diesel car.
Yesterday, I got home after multiple trips that added up to 95 miles. There was just six percent of battery charge remaining, which definitely didn't impress my wife when I pointed it out. But hey, I still feel like I am pioneering something or other and there's a risk that needs taking.
I took the Honda up to Old Warden in Bedfordshire, home of the Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society, where I have become a volunteer. My key job will be taking visitors for rides on the excellent 1913 Wellingborough Leyland ST bus. I am learning to drive all over again - and I'm hard pushed to find a greater contrast to the Honda e than this.
I have to admit to toying with the value of the Honda. Today, there is a far greater choice of electric cars than there were when I ordered it 18 months ago. For the new price of around £30,000 for the Advance version, there's an increasingly wide range of rivals, many of which have beefier batteries. A quick look at Webuyanycar delivered a value of just £21,000, so selling it so soon isn't viable.
Anyway, range apart, the Honda e is simply a brilliant small car. I love the way it drives, the comfort, the way you can hustle it along winding roads like a good hot hatchback, yet travel in a compact luxury when you feel like easing off.
I received a recall notice from Honda today. The rear seatbelt reminder light on the dashboard needs attention. As no one has yet travelled in the back, that's an issue that may wait until the service.
Unless, that is, I go mad at the occasional clunking of the front passenger window. It lowers a touch in the frameless doors when they are opened, but then repeatedly tries to go back up when the door is shut. It must be a sensor problem somewhere.
At home I have had smart meters installed in anticipation of Honda's vehicle-to-grid charging system being installed. It has been delayed, but the promise is that there's now not long to wait.
That's it for now, but expect another report very soon. Finally I have managed to tie Honda down on the sort of questions owners and prospective owners have been asking. Watch this space.
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Last weekend I decided to visit Gridserve in Braintree, Essex. You probably know this is the UK's first dedicated electric car charging station, and it happens to be around 40 miles from my home in Hertfordshire. So, on Monday morning, with a freshly home-charged battery and the interior of the Honda e pre-warmed before I set foot inside, I set off east along the A120.
At Bishops Stortford I went off-piste, heading north through Stansted Mountfitchet (bravely ignoring a visit to the Morgan dealership) then across country on some lovely winding roads through the pretty villages of Thaxted and Great Bardfield, before dropping down to Braintree.
The plan was to see if the Honda e really did feel as good as a Mini Cooper when the conditions were right, and it nearly did. The sheer weight of those batteries means it turns into corners with a slightly leaden feel, but it grips well enough, the steering is sweet and the suspension something of a marvel in the way it keeps the car composed and comfortable.
Gridserve is a revelation. There are 36 charging points, most of them really fast, and the interface is so simple: plug in, flash your card, get a drink. It's a nice place to spend 30 minutes, with good coffee, some shopping opportunities, a post office and clean toilets. A price of 24p per kWh, too. I'll write more on Gridserve soon.
Tuesday was a day out to Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire. It's 47 miles from home - a 94-mile round trip - so we took the Honda. In theory we can make the whole route without a stop, but I have contingencies up my sleeve. Or so I thought. First stop, the National Trust property with, believe it or not, exactly 50 percent range remaining. Perfect.
A non-stop return trip still looked feasible, but a 10-minute blast at Shell Four Went Ways near Duxford would remove the risk. But someone else had just arrived at the rapid charger and was trying to fathom how to make it work. Having just one rapid charger is insane! I could see this extending to the thick end of an hour, so we went onwards.
With this minor diversion, making it home without more fuel now looked dicey. The next charger on our route was on the Royston bypass. After 10 minutes faffing around with Vendelectric, trying to make the useless app work, we gave up there as well. Seriously, what is the point of chargers like these? Why do they need my name, address and inside leg measurement when all I want is a quick charge? Not that it would have been quick. At 7kW, it's no faster than a home charger.
We definitely wouldn't make it home now, so the next stop was Baldock services, which it turns out is some way the other side of Baldock and by now I was down to seven percent charge with the dashboard lights dimmed as an extra warning. As if I needed it.
And guess what? All four Ionity charge points are being worked on by technicians with (diesel) white vans. Thankfully, they took no persuasion to screw one of them together so I could plug in. And as it wasn't working at the claimed 350kW charge rate, there was no fee. Free charging instead of the usual 69p per kWh - happy days!
My wife wasn't quite so impressed, it must be said. All in all, it had taken us an additional hour to make that 47-mile trip home. The joy of electric cars.
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"How far will it go?" As Chris Harris said in his Top Gear review of the Honda e, it's the first question anyone asks about an electric car.
The official figures are muddled by model and wheel size, but the Honda's best result is 137 miles. The e Advance, like mine, manages 131 miles, although if you opt for the less sexy 16-inch wheels you get another six miles. In theory.
There's a lot of 'in practice' versus 'in theory' about the mileage any electric car can achieve on a full charge, and the difference can be stark. Just look at what was on my screen this morning shortly after I set off. With 98 percent charge remaining, there's an estimated range of just 76 miles.
Now, you or I probably wouldn't want range to dip much below 20 miles before a little anxiety kicks in, which means I have a viable range of around 60 miles. More than a bit limiting.
Hold that thought, though. The display shows that average energy use so far is 0.7 miles per kWh. That's frankly rubbish, largely because I drive straight up a hill from my driveway. That 76-mile range is partly a reflection of an atypical situation.
Then look at the fan sign towards the top. It's eight degrees celsius outside, and I have the heating (although not the air-con) switched on the warm the interior. That's knocking a staggering 19 miles off the range.
I'm guessing that when the interior does get up to temperature, this 19 miles will drop well back. It may not, of course, as this is an urban car, which is mostly used for short trips.
The Honda has a function to pre-warm the interior before I set off. The idea is that you do this while the car is still plugged in, so power comes from the mains rather the battery. You can programme this via the dashboard or an app - or simply press a button on the key while you are having breakfast.
So far I have tried it only once and the battery had dropped well away from 100 percent when I unplugged. The reason, I think, is that I still recharge from the three-pin domestic socket, and the power available simply isn't enough to do the job and keep battery fully topped up.
All should be cured with the Honda Home Charging Station that is being installed in December. It will give me the amps I need to set off this winter with a warm, cosy feeling and a full tank of 'gas'.
All this brings us back to how far the Honda e Advance with 17-inch wheels will travel on a charge. I originally reckoned 115 miles might be possible on a long, gentle drive, but there is at least one person on the Honda Forum who drove 130 miles, finishing with seven percent still remaining in the battery. As ever, it all depends on how you drive.
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It's funny how much interest you generate driving the Honda e. While two friends have turned their noses up at the design, the vast majority are really positive about how it looks. I'm sure that, back in 1959, the Mini got just the same mixed reactions from owners of Morris Oxfords and Ford Anglias.
I took the Honda over to Aston Martin in Hatfield, where I was going for a test-drive in the new DBX SUV. The weather was filthy, but that didn't stop me being tailed by a lady in a BMW who followed me onto the forecourt to find out more about my "wonderful" car.
Then I was flagged down by a Range Rover driver coming towards me on a narrow country road near Kimpton (I had little choice but to stop). He was keen to chat about the Honda until it became clear he was causing a roadblock.
My car has recently been back to the dealer for a bit of fettling. For me, one of the worst things that can happen with a new car is that it starts rattling. And, true to form, it wouldn't rattle when I went out with the technician from Norton Way Honda for a test-drive.
The source of the annoyance was the dashboard. I was convinced it was coming from the passenger side, my wife insisted it came from my side. So we pressed and poked as we drove along, even reached right underneath the glovebox and steering wheel to see if we could damp it down, all to no avail. I was dreading the worst possible outcome: that the workshop would have to remove the whole dashboard to solve the problem.
These days, though, we have internet forums. My rattle was not unique, and someone suggested that the housing in front of the interior mirror was the cause. Hey presto, pressing the housing upwards stopped the noise.
I passed this info to Norton Way Honda before they collected the car. They still couldn't hear the rattle, so didn't have anything to fix. Eventually, I suggested that they stick some padding in the mirror housing to damp it down, which they have done. Fingers crossed. Fixing the charge port door, which was showing increasing reluctance to pop up, was a simple task in comparison.
I wasn't in a rush to get the Honda home because we'd been away to Spain for a couple of weeks and then had a two-weeks quarantine in the UK. I was surprised to find I could rent a Renault Zoe EV in Mallorca, so I jumped at the chance. In the UK, the Honda and Renault compete directly for the same buyers at a similar price.
The strong points of the Zoe 40 are its vastly better range - probably 50 percent more than the Honda in real terms - and its much bigger boot. The Renault also drives nicely, so no complaints there.
The Zoe and Honda both have door handles that are built into the rear pillars. They disguise the fact that these are five- and not three-door cars, but they are a real fiddle and I'd gladly have a more traditional handle.
Still, getting back into my Honda e is a joy. It's so much classier than the utilitarian Renault, lovely to sit in and simply more fun to drive. I made the right decision. I think.
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I've bought a brand new Honda e. No, I didn't borrow one for a few days, or squeeze a six-month loan from Honda UK. I spent £30k of my own money on the coolest and, potentially, most fun electric car you can buy.
It's well known that the Honda e has one of the shortest ranges of any new electric car, save those from Smart and the weird-but-wonderful Renault Twizy. Why spend so much on something so constrained, then?
Well, I like things that are high quality and great fun. My Honda lawnmower was very expensive back in 1997, but it's still going strong. I've also owned a Porsche 911 for 21 years and I still love it.
So, when Honda announced 18 months ago that its new electric car could be reserved for a refundable down-payment of £800, there seemed nothing to lose. Gradually, however, the growing proximity of delivery meant a serious decision was needed about whether to go ahead with the purchase.
If you analyse such decisions with clinical intensity, as sadly I do, it's pretty apparent there's no right answer. Yes, I'd like an electric car. And for £30,000, there's a lot of choice. Similar-sized offerings from Peugeot and Vauxhall offer 50 percent more range, while you can pick up the far roomier Nissan Leaf for much less.
Yet I kept coming back to the fact there's nothing else quite like the Honda e. I reckon in 10 years time we'll still marvel at how bold Honda has been. Cars like this arrive once in a decade. So I stuck with Plan A.
I've been running the car for a month now, covered 600 miles, and bravely completed a 200-mile round-trip in a day. I've enjoyed every minute of it, as has my wife who also loves how easy the Honda is to drive and live with.
We charge at home simply by plugging into the mains socket in the garage. Not ideal, but an overnight charge sees the battery back to maximum until we make a decision on a proper home charger. Our old Pod Point, which we've had for what must be eight years, has given up the will to live and it makes no economic sense to get it repaired.
The Honda e has seats that might suit your lounge at home, a comfortable ride for a smallish car and great visibility. We can even squeeze a decent supermarket shop into the boot, which isn't as tiny as it first seems once you move the charging cables elsewhere.
The Honda e is packed with technology. The screens that spread right across the dashboard are both a talking point, a useful source of information, and sometimes a distraction. Thankfully, there's a button that allows virtually the whole lot to be switched off.
I'll go more into detail in a future report, because there's much to say - and initially it seemed both the dealers and Honda UK were as bedazzled by the tech as owners.
I've had to brace myself to deal with the "How far will she go?" question, both from electric car aficionados and the Luddites. The official figure is around 125 miles, but I reckon 110-115 miles is more realistic, which means refuel stops inevitably occur around 80 miles apart, just to be on the safe side.
It's not a problem for me as we use the Honda for local journeys, for which it was designed. Mind you, because it's such a nice piece of kit, I hanker after doing a 500-mile trip to Cornwall sometime soon. That will take some planning.
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