Honda e:Ny1 long-term test

The Car Honda e:Ny1 Advance Run by James Tute, Content Editor

Why it’s here To see if Honda’s electric SUV is agile enough for city driving while remaining practical for longer trips to the Shires

Needs to be Well-suited to rush-hour traffic and comfy on motorway drives, with enough range for hassle-free long journeys

Mileage 8391 List price £42,195 Target Price £33,345 Price as tested £42,845 Official range 256 miles Test range 238 miles Private price now £23,340 Dealer price now £23,315 Running costs (excl. depreciation) Charging £545

13 November 2024 – Two out of three ain’t bad, eh, Max?

During my time with a Honda e:Ny1, a slightly surreal video appeared online showing F1 driver Max Verstappen looking cheery and relaxed driving a car just like mine. So – as I say goodbye to the e:Ny1 – was I as happy as Max with this electric SUV?

Well, mostly yes – but occasionally not so much.

Top of the list of things I like about the e:Ny1 is how well-pampered I was by its smart and comfortable interior. You could almost call it “sunlounger comfy”.

I also like the interior’s user-friendliness, which meant it didn’t take long to work out all the gadgets. A good example is the adaptive cruise control (a feature I use a lot). It’s controlled using buttons on the steering wheel, and is so intuitive I got it working first time – and without consulting the e:Ny1’s inch-thick manual.

I found the tall infotainment touchscreen – which is divided into three distinct sections – easier to use than many cars’ systems, too, and the digital driver’s display is clear and well-organised.

During several long drives with the e:Ny1, I spent four hours plus at the wheel in a day, and each time I emerged in a much better state than I’ve been left in by less comfy cars. I put that down to the well-padded electrically adjustable driving seat, and the fact that I had plenty of head and leg room.

So far, so good – but what about negotiating a busy city centre in an electric SUV rather than a less bulky electric car? Here, I was pleasantly surprised. You see, the e:Ny1 turns out to be narrower than a Ford Focus and only a few centimetres longer.

So, while many SUVs are a nightmare to guide along double-parked streets, it made life fairly easy. The well-weighted steering, large wing mirrors and 360-degree parking camera also helped.

All that meant that my most common drive – commuting from Central London to What Car?’s office in Twickenham – was as stress-free as I could wish it to be. For all the same reasons, long motorway journeys were comfortable too, but also highlighted what are for me the e:Ny1’s main weaknesses.

You see, while I was plodding around in stop-start traffic at 20mph or less, allowing the regenerative braking to recoup plenty of energy, there was never any danger of not having enough charge to finish my journey. Plus, I was achieving comfortably more than 200 miles on a charge.

On long journeys with lots of motorway miles my range figure dropped to – at worst – the equivalent of 168 miles for a full charge. That was in cold weather (around 10C) when I ran the climate control more to keep warm and the e:Ny1’s lack of an EV heat pump perhaps took its toll.

As a result, a 200-mile drive from London to my home town in Cheshire – my benchmark for electric car ranges and something I have managed in a higher-spec Skoda Enyaq – wasn’t possible without stopping to charge up.

And that in turn meant the model’s 78kW maximum charging rate became an irritation: even if I found a fast public charger, each mile of range I added would take much longer than with the fastest charging EVs. That wouldn’t be such a surprise in a cheaper car, but it felt like a let-down in a model of the e:Ny1's price.

If you can charge up your electric car at home and don’t plan to use it for many long journeys, none of that’s a problem, but I rely on public EV chargers and try to escape London quite often, so from time to time it was.

When I took delivery of my e:Ny1, I set out to find out whether it would prove to be easy to drive in rush-hour traffic, comfortable on motorway drives and a good choice for hassle-free long journeys.

As I’ve explained, it aced the first two parts of the test – to a surprising degree, in fact – but fluffed the third challenge (as, to be fair, several electric cars have). At times I’ve been as frustrated as Max Verstappen after a five-place grid penalty, but mostly, like in his video, I’ve had a fairly blissful time with the e:Ny1.

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