Simply when Honda’s restrained method to the EV rush of the early 2020s was roughly vindicated, the corporate confirmed a wild wanting pair of EV ideas ultimately yr’s CES. The corporate stated on the time that the 0 Sequence vehicles represented a rebirth, or a contemporary begin for the corporate; a Honda 2.0, let’s assume. Final week in Japan, I noticed that Honda intends extra than simply idea automobile fluff for the Saloon and House-Hub — it’s really on monitor to construct not less than one in every of them. I spent hours with engineers, sat in spherical desk discussions, watched a whole lot of demonstrations and was proven a whole lot of Powerpoint slides. I even drove a prototype for the 0 Sequence.
I noticed manufacturing strategies which might be new to Honda, and one welding approach that’s totally new. I used to be advised that the 0 Sequence vehicles would ship a heretofore unknown sort of driving satisfaction. I used to be proven a variety of new ways in which these vehicles will work together with my telephone, and given time with Honda executives to ask questions. I noticed an terrible lot, and the automobile is attention-grabbing and in some ways, spectacular. However some elementary questions, like “will these vehicles discover a market?” stay unanswered for now.
We noticed the Saloon idea up shut together with some engineering cutaways. It seems that in manufacturing kind, the Saloon might be a big EV station wagon, however that sells the precise form quick; it’s extra like a dustbuster or a sleeker, much less utilitarian transport shuttle from “Star Trek.” It ought to be stated that the cutaways we noticed featured an A-pillar that was extra upright than that of the idea. I’d count on one thing extra upright after we see the manufacturing automobile, which additionally matches with Honda’s said need to create plenty of inside house whereas sustaining a low roofline. What doesn’t match with the inside house factor is that it has a transmission tunnel, regardless of having no transmission. We had been advised that the tunnel homes digital elements.
The philosophy that underpins this automobile, and Honda’s EVs going ahead, is “Skinny, gentle and smart.” The structural battery pack isn’t large, comparatively talking. It’s forged out of aluminum, will include pouch cells and its shell could be expandable for purposes that require extra pouches. On the underside facet of the pack, a plate with cooling channels pressed into it’s hooked up through friction stir welding. Different producers construct cooling channels into the pack case itself, which makes them thicker than the one which Honda has developed right here. Honda goals for about 300 miles of vary, which it believes is sufficient to make the vehicles helpful for the typical purchaser.
Honda invented a brand new welding course of to include extra excessive power metal into the physique construction, which can make it lighter and thinner. The automaker additionally says the battery pack gives extra crash safety within the occasion of a facet impression, and that the entrance of the automobile is designed to redirect the power of impacts away from the passenger cell. In fact, the automobile will carry the usual driver-assist programs that you just’d count on from a premium EV.
Aside from some intelligent particulars, what you see wanting on the cutaway is kind of customary EV fare, besides on the entrance the place issues get fairly bizarre. The strut towers angle inward from the wheels and there’s no actual construction tying them collectively from the highest. Honda says this protects weight, and I’m positive that’s the case, however extra importantly it permits the entrance finish of the automobile to flex. After years of listening to carmakers brag about rising structural rigidity, I’ve been confronted with one which flexes on the entrance. The automobile’s suspension will use that flex to press down on both wheel, exerting drive on the tire and supposedly bettering traction and the feeling of management. A steer-by-wire system will inform the steering, but in addition the suspension and brakes. They’ll all work along with sensors derived from Honda’s in depth robotics actions to ship a heretofore unknown sense of management, or man/machine oneness.
To expertise that, I drove a prototype that was a CR-V physique driving on a 0 Sequence chassis. I had ten minutes in it consisting of three laps round a brief check monitor. I’ll say that it felt completely different from different EVs. The prototype felt surprisingly flat by means of corners, and on a lefthand hairpin going uphill I may really feel the person wheels working to direct the automobile by means of the flip. For a CR-V it felt sporty, although not in a traditional sense. After sitting by means of an extended technical briefing about how the powertrain and suspension labored I used to be making an attempt my finest to get a way for what it felt like in actual driving, however I don’t know that I acquired all the best way there in my quick time with the automobile. The rear would additionally unload dramatically over greater bumps in a means that reminded you that this was certainly a cobbled collectively prototype. Total, I’d say the driving expertise was completely different sufficient to be attention-grabbing. I may see with some refinement how the system may ship a cushty, pleasurable drive. It is going to be attention-grabbing to see how common drivers who haven’t had the total briefing understand it. Will it register to them in any respect? I ponder if the typical EV purchaser thinks a lot about driving dynamics.
We received’t know extra about this automobile till January of 2025 at CES, and it appears there’s lots in regards to the 0 Sequence that isn’t set in stone. Honda advised us that it is going to be positioned as a premium product, and that it’s going to carry a Honda badge within the U.S., however we don’t but have pricing or a closing identify but. All that’s fantastic and in no way irregular, they’ll determine it out.
The automobile we noticed, at present often called “Saloon,” is scheduled to hit dealerships in 2026 and might be in-built Ohio. It’s clearly unimaginable to know what the marketplace for EVs will appear like by then, possibly the world might be prepared for a dear, wildly formidable Honda EV in a yr and a half.