The Popular Honda City Has Been Electrified

The popular Honda City has been electrified. We drive the new e:HEV iteration of the Japanese sedan that is being made in India and offered in one top-spec ZX trim

- Jim Gorde

HYBRIDS. THE MIDDLE GROUND. PETROL engine still there for support, but the electric motor is the hero. Unlike a PHEV (or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle), there's no huge, heavy battery—it's a light, compact unit-and there's no plug point, so there's no time-read that as no long hours-spent charging the car. The engine plays generator and the e-motor drives the car. It's, as a rival brand pushes for it to be called, a self-charging electric vehicle. Accurate.

So, then, the new City e:HEV, or “e series” Hybrid Electric Vehicle, is the first Honda e series model, with the all-electric Honda e hatchback being the spearhead poster child for the sub-brand of sorts. The new City e: HEV looks like the City i-VTEC and i-DTEC we're used to seeing. The bestselling sedan from Honda has opened the year with 3,000 cars, give or take, rolling off showroom floors. Those are decent numbers, good enough for a top-five sedan spot, during these tough times of low buying sentiment and high fuel prices. The latter is what the Honda City e: HEV aims to address head-on. Yet, it looks almost exactly like the conventional combustion models. There's the wide grille with a thick chrome bar flanked by sharp-looking LED headlamps. The side profile is just as sleek and generous, with 16-inch wheels and 185/55 rubber filling up the wheel-arches, and the tight rear section with 3D tail-lamp clusters looks just as sharp. What tells it apart is the blue surround on the Honda logo, front and rear.