Honda debuts new global EV series, Honda Zero, coming in 2026

Dinsmore@sh.itjust.works to Technology@lemmy.world – 317 points –
Honda debuts new global EV series, Honda Zero, coming in 2026
theverge.com
103

I really wish car companies would actually release production models that looked like the concept models. These look so goddamn cool.

I don’t need to see out the back if I’m staring into the future!

No you don't. They look cool and get you thinking you want them. However if you ever had to live with them instead of just looking you would quickly discover some of those cool looking things make for very annoying compromises and so you wouldn't want them.

You have described the experience of Jeep ownership. The heart wants what it wants.

"hi, dealership, I'm looking for a car that looks like an oversized Amazon package and rides like I'm in a trashcan being kicked by a mule. You say you have plenty of jeeps available? Perfect."

Jeeps, man. If you're looking for a comfortable, reliable, fuel efficient vehicle, you'd go elsewhere. But if you want the front windshield to fold down, and for it to perform better off-road than on-road, they got a box on wheels that's perfect for you.

But if you want the front windshield to fold down

If people actually wanted that, Jeep wouldn't keep making it more complicated and awkward to do with each new generation.

Yeah, you right haha. Ever since the JK I think it's been theoretically possible, with effort, and you'll have water ingress issues permanently.

4 more...
4 more...

Neighbor got a jeep. I was shocked to learn it gets 15-17 miles per gallon. I get that it is an SUV, but there are SUVs with more utility that get better gas mileage.

They have some models that have ok-ish gas mileage for an SUV. Then there's the Wrangler. It starts with abysmal gas mileage, and then you upgrade it, and every upgrade adds weight or reduces on road efficiency. It's really an offroad motorsports vehicle that somehow happens to be road legal.

4 more...
4 more...

I rented a jeep (Cherokee?) for the first time recently. Literally a worse driving experience than my old 2000 Mitsubishi Galant. Which was the worst ever, prior to the jeep.

lol, my first car was a Jeep. Fun car.

never bought another one, though.

I bought a Wrangler new for $27k, hit two trees with it while offroading, lost its spare key, and sold it without working heat 8 years later for 18k. 10/10, would do that again.

Though honestly, I probably wouldnt buy one again either. My wife and I want a light truck for house projects and her short commute, an EV for travel and my commute, and then I'd love a Polaris or something for fun. A Jeep ain't any of those

I bought a Wrangler new for $27k

'96-’01?

given your story, it sounds like you did your best to drive that thing into the ground (not judging). I’m glad you had fun with it, as that’s what they’re for, although, you probably would have gotten many more years out of it had you actually driven it like a car and on the street (also, regular maintenance). just sayin’.

given your follow-up, it was obviously not a long-term choice (is it for anyone?), and I’m glad you’ve found what works for you. I discovered that my vehicle of choice is the NYC Subway! But, fuck, I REALLY miss my 2001 Honda Accord EX Coupe! That car was the shit!

edit: I changed out the headers, injectors, and spark plugs, had a friend replace the muffler, and replaced the air intake, and took that ca from 195HP to 245hp. it was so light, that such an increase was huge, and the transmission was delightful, with a trick in the accelerator where you could get it to shift up or down if you knew how to tap it just right. and that spoiler? smoooooth.

2 more...
2 more...
2 more...
6 more...
7 more...

I also think they're cool. I also wouldn't own one because of how incredibly out of place they look.

Chrysler used to do that. Did you ever put your money where your mouth is and buy a P.T. Cruiser, Prowler, or Crossfire?

I really wanted a crossfire, but couldn’t afford one at the time

Hell yeah, I owned a PT for about a year, that car was fun to drive. Never been able to hold the gas pedal to the floor for as long in any other car!

Never been able to hold the gas pedal to the floor for as long in any other car!

LOL, I see what you did there.

If in was in my 50's having a raging midlife crisis, I would totally get a prowler

7 more...

Tron: Legacy soundtrack comes preloaded

No real specs are being released, but Honda says these future EVs will be both partially and fully autonomous, depending on the configuration.

Doubt

Does cruise control and lane assist count as "partially autonomous"?

2 more...

Just make a regular looking car that happens to be EV. I don’t know why manufacturers have to make the dumbest looking vehicles for their EV cars.

Styles are changing, I guess they're focus grouping it and people want cars from blade runner. No longer requiring a radiator or exhaust has actually produced some interesting designs.

No longer requiring a radiator or exhaust has actually produced some interesting designs.

I would rather just have more storage. I think lucid did it right for EV design, same with Rivian. Seems like the legacy car manufacturers always make a goofy design. The lucid air for example is a foot shorter than the S class but has more space.

Practical EVs exist too. It's an open market so there will be something for everyone I'm sure. If you really hate EV design you can buy the conversion kits for a classic.

Lots of visibility with such a small front end, but it’ll make head-on collisions scarier, also, imo. Looks aerodynamic, too. I’d have no issue rocking this for my daily.

Money would be the issue for me.

Just give me a standard car with an electric engine.

Depending on your commute, a used Nissan Leaf will get you back and forth for 5k to 10k. If you have a long commute, used Model S can be had as low as 20k, but it comes with some negative connotations.

If you don't necessarily want to plug in and efficiency is good enough, old reliable Priuses are getting pretty cheap.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, the concept cars always look sleek and then the manufacturers poop out something that looks way more standard. See: the Chevy Volt.

I'm with you on this. I feel like manufacturers still feel like people are wanting to make a statement by making EVs look like their suited for spaceflight. I'd rather have near similar looking models to what we've already got with the combustion engine, with aerodynamic considerations for efficiency baked in.

Marginally nicer looking than the cybertruck. I would steal this in GTA if I played GTA and it was a car in the game

Don’t worry, folks. Most of the time, concept cars exist solely to look interesting and get people talking, especially when it’s from a major manufacturer. I’m sure the production model will be much more boring appealing to the masses.

I just want the damn Honda E little hatchback thing in the US

Looks amazing, but is also $48,000 USD for a very small car. I drive a 89 CRX so I do love small cars, just that is way too much.

Ever notice how all the new selling points for cars are all things to avoid the experience of driving a car:

-self driving (because why would you want to drive a car)

-giant screens (because why would you want to look at all the shitty strip malls)

-tinted windows (because you wouldn't want to be seen driving this piece of shit)

-self driving (because why would you want to drive a car)

Don't use it/pay for self driving option

-giant screens (because why would you want to look at all the shitty strip malls)

People have been putting screens in cars for a very long time.

-tinted windows (because you wouldn't want to be seen driving this piece of shit)

People have been tinting windows for a very long time

Are you trying to counter what the other commenter said or trying to make a point or something? Because you really have not at all.

That’s all that cars have become. It’s great for anyone who doesn’t like driving, it sucks for anyone who enjoys it

They look great imo, but the full self driving is a pipe dream.

I dunno. If there is a culture that I think has innovated great ideas into reality it's the Japanese car companies. They took what we wanted in the 80s and made it happen. Then kept doing it.

The low, sloping shape gives it a sporty feel that cribs from Honda’s Formula 1 experience.

So the car will be terrible for several years, then they'll bring out a model that's amazing with sales going through the roof, and then they'll immediately pull out of the market.

Continuing the trend of completely butchering the rear end of the vehicle as is the case with many other modern cars aswell.

Seems they looked at nature for inspiration and baboon rear-ends were their take-away.

Oh yeah, when you see a lady driving one of these things around, you'll know she's in heat with her swollen red rear-end. boom-chica-wowow

I really hope that back end is the charging port and you get to park you car like one of those toy cars that you you 'charge' up and fire across the room.

Someone at Honda looked at the failure that is the Cybertruck and was like "Huh... not bad"

The difference here is that the car in the picture is a concept car, which very very rarely ever makes it to production as is. The Cybertruck is the exception to that rule...

Oh don't worry, the real Cybertruck is much worse than the concept!

Why do these concept vehicles always have to look this dumb and impractical? Why can’t we get EU sized personal electric vehicles? Think Fiat 500 or the Renault Twingo?

Cuz you guys don't buy them. Got another easy question?

Also because of the way emissions standards are enforced in the US, SUVs and trucks are held to lower emissions standards making them more profitable. They receive the heaviest marketing and therefore sell the most.

Holy fuck, do I love capitalism.

1 more...

I'm never getting my EV 1989 VW GTI, am I?

As a resto mod? Possibly.

As a modern EV? Never.

Fine! I'll make my own 1989 VW GTI EV! With blackjack! And hookers!

All things considered that would be a doable e-swap. I'm not sure you're getting AWD, or much battery life, but it would be doable.

Why would I want AWD? How would I put cafeteria trays under the rear tires and do donuts?

Wait, no side mirrors AND you can't see out the back? I guess you can only ever go forward in this thing or just hope there's nothing behind you ever (I'm guessing they have rear-facing cameras, but those suck).

Prototypes look cooler without mirrors, they always add them after

We need some more future cars like this.

Why does all our shit looks like someone just smoothed out the cars from the 90s?

Because making cars more aerodynamic was way easier than making ICEs more efficient.

Because the "smoothed out the cars from the 90s" are practical, serviceable and (American pickups aside) not gargantuan space hogs.

Because this looks like shit? Its an even uglier cyber truck.

It’s so ugly

I’m sure I’ll see a ton of them, but they’re horrible looking

They're concept cars. Concept cars always look weird. The actual production models won't look anything like them; they never do.

They are awesome! It’s like what I imagined the future would be when I was a little kid. They’re ugly and weird, but the sporty one is cool. Shit, I’d even take the van if the range is good.

I'm been hearing about all sorts of electric vehicles that will be available "a few years from now" for over five years now. The few that have come out are expensive and have compromises. Guess I'll be sticking with my plug-in hybrid for quite a while longer.

Countach vibes…

Back to the Future II vibes. Never mind that its "future" setting was nine years ago...

Give me an electric Element - something with cargo space and rapid reconfigurability.

Honda is also aiming for optimum battery efficiency through its use of e-Axles, a system consisting of a motor, inverter, and gearbox that converts electric power into energy for driving.

This is revolutionary, folks: e-Axles! Can you believe it? They made an electric car!

They're describing an electric car.

Then they gave it a fancy proprietary name so gullible tech writers think it's Technology™️ and regurgitate their ad copy as news articles.

To be fair e-axles are actually a thing. You can mount the electric motor where an engine would be and use largely the same components as a traditional car to get the motion to the wheels. Instead e-axles basically wrap all the motion components around the axle. Motor trend had an article about it a while ago.

www.motortrend.com/news/e-axle-vs-central-drive-motor-layout-commercial-evs

So it's basically a fancy Technology™️ term for a layout decision which was called motor on axle for decades until a marketing department decided they needed some Innovation™️, and this tech writer described it so poorly I couldn't even identify it even though I've programmed quad motor torque vectoring systems myself.

Electric motors have this interesting property where they require such minimal supporting components - basically a couple of power wires and some sensors - that they can scale to any size with very little overhead, and so you can do 4 motors. That's it, electric cars give you this possibility for free.

"Motor-on-axle" is descriptive and helpful. In fact it's too descriptive, because it reveals that nothing special is going on. "e-Axle" is opaque nonsense for gullible tech writers, and this one tried to make it sound special but ended up opting for such vague language that they literally just described an electric car.

This entire article is just ad-copy. It's fashion writing for tech nerds.

It seemed like Honda was going in the right direction with the eCity, but so much for that, I guess.

I'd be all over it, but only if it wasn't full of log collection and self driving bullshit like all EVs. EVs are a step to buying a rental. It's not yours. Cameras will be watching. You driving habits, tracks, conversations, etc, all sent to god knows where. This is the future of vehicles and it's bullshit.

2 more...

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Many of the EVs hitting the US market this year are big, heavy SUVs and trucks, complementing a broader trend in car buying that has seen some companies stop making sedans altogether.

A marketing video featured a retractable steering wheel that emerges from the dash when needed, suggesting that customers will be able to toggle between human and robot driving as the mood fits.

Honda is also aiming for optimum battery efficiency through its use of e-Axles, a system consisting of a motor, inverter, and gearbox that converts electric power into energy for driving.

Overall, Honda is aiming for 30 new EVs by 2030 with 2 million units sold, 100 percent zero-emission auto sales by 2040, and carbon neutrality “for all products and corporate activities” by 2050.

And Cruise, GM’s autonomous unit in which Honda is also an investor, has paused all public operations after a pedestrian was injured by one of the company’s driverless vehicles.

The Prologue SUV is set to reach customers this year, Honda’s first major effort to sell electric vehicles in North America since the oft-maligned Clarity.


The original article contains 807 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Everyone: ewww the Cybertruck is so ugly

Honda: hold my beer