Honda Super-N could bring kei car fun to the UK

It is compact. It is lightweight. It is unapologetically engineered to be inexpensive. The Honda Super-N embodies everything modern cars are supposedly unable to be. Yet Honda is pushing back, aiming to bring the appeal of sensibly sized kei cars to the UK.

Let’s not get carried away, though. For the moment, the Super-N is solely a prototype. This is no mere concept: it has door mirrors, windscreen wipers and seatbelts. It is an actual car. We also know it works on the road, as Honda took a camouflaged Super-N development mule to the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the summer.

We can now see its styling, while Honda calculates the price and timing of its eventual launch.

Photography: Toby Thyer/manufacturer

Honda Super-N design and interior

Its appearance is, unsurprisingly, square. Following the immensely popular kei-car formula - Japan’s city streets are lined with flat-sided, narrow-tyred machines using engines of no more than 660cc - the Super-N has sharper edges than a block of cheddar, while its wheels look Babybel-sized. But those swollen, flared wheelarches are fantastic. Once it has matured, this little thing will be begging for a Liberty Walk stance.

Its feisty little front end recalls the Honda e, although the Super-N will hopefully find more buyers than the beautifully styled e, which managed only three and a half sales thanks to its limited range and high price. Better still, the touchscreen does not overwhelm the cabin.

Heating and air-conditioning are controlled by proper physical switches, while there is another intriguing feature behind the steering wheel: paddle shifters. To use them, drivers will need to select ‘Boost Mode’. Honda explains "not only does this increase vehicle output to maximise performance, but it also simulates a multi-gear shift with Active Sound Control". It is giving us miniature Hyundai Ioniq 5 N energy.

“Coupled with dedicated interior displays and coordinated lighting sequences, this ensures a sense of excitement and enhanced driving engagement that is unique to a vehicle of this size,” Honda confidently claims. It could be onto something. The tiny EV market is, at last, filling with entertaining cars, but neither the Renault 5, its Alpine relative nor the forthcoming Volkswagen ID.1 offers a simulated gearbox.

Honda Super-N UK launch and price

The Super-N is due to arrive in 2026, after Honda has revealed major missing details including its weight, power output, battery range and, most importantly, purchase price.

You might assume this is precisely the car Europe has been demanding: an endearing, nimble EV that will hopefully be cheap as chips to buy. However, as continental Europe favours left-hand-drive steering wheels - incorrectly, of course - Honda says it intends to sell the car only in the UK, Japan and Asia.

Honda’s official position is that it “does not have any immediate plans to introduce the Super-N Prototype to any further European markets”. Still, the company also acknowledges that “the success of this new model will help to understand the consumer appetite for any future small EVs within the region".

There is no pressure, then, but strong sales could usher in a fresh era of entry-level fun cars. Please bring us the figures soon, Honda. And while you are at it, would a ‘Type R’ badge not look rather smart on the bootlid?