Honda Ready to Reveal New EV Concept in Beijing
New Honda EV concept set to join CR-V PHEV during the 2020 Beijing Auto Show, previews EV set go to market in China soon.
Honda has brought a lot to the green table over the past couple of decades. The first-gen Insight has a cult following to this day. The Clarity pushes for a hydrogen future just starting out. In between, the various hybrids have boosted the company’s environmental cred, including the Accord Hybrid and the second-gen Acura NSX.
What Honda doesn’t have — in the United States, at least — is a full-electric model in the lineup. Right now, Europe and Japan both enjoy the adorable e, while we wait for an EV of our own without a Nissan badge. According to FutureCar, we’re still going to wait, as China is the next market up for a Honda EV.
Per a statement from the China HQ, a preview of the new EV is set to arrive in concept form at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition. Scheduled for September 26 through October 5, the concept will join the CR-V PHEV in the booth. The latter model is the first Honda PHEV offered in China.
Meanwhile, the EV concept appears to be a bigger model made for the country’s affluent customers. Its face, as FutureCar notes, resembles that of the Civic and the Accord. Both cars are much larger than the city-ready e, a car which may not be as big a hit in the 1-billion-strong nation as it is in Paris or Tokyo.
Both the e and the Chinese Honda EV appear to go against what CEO Takahiro Hachigo told Automotive News Europe nearly a year ago. Then, he said, “EVs will not be mainstream. The hurdles to battery electric vehicles and complete autonomous driving are still quite high.”
While autonomous driving still sounds more like a pipe dream than a reality around the corner, it looks like EVs are more mainstream than Hachigo first thought. We just hope Honda decides to bring one over to the United States sooner than later. We’ll take such a thing with a Honda or Acura badge, please.
Photos: Honda
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