- Honda is still trying to create an exciting EV worthy of bearing the Type R badge.
- Its electric offerings so far haven’t been the best to drive, but it’s not giving up on making a driver’s EV.
- A future Type R could be a hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fully electric.
Honda has vowed to keep making sporty Type R models even as the entire world continues to move toward electric vehicles. However, it’s finding it challenging to create performance EVs that can match the excitement and engagement you feel when driving one of its combustion-powered hot hatches.
According to Toshihiro Akiwa, Honda’s EV development boss, quoted by AutoExpress, “A battery and motor have different characteristics so we can’t come up with something exactly the same as before. As an EV, how can we provide the joy of driving? We haven’t given up of course, but it’s not just about power, it’s about the sound, vibration, acceleration and the human experience. These are the joys of driving.”
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If you’ve driven any Civic Type R built in the last 20 years, then you know how thrilling it can be to take one around a twisty road and enjoy its brilliant high-revving engine and outstanding manual gearbox. The experience evolved when Honda introduced turbocharging to its Type R line with the FK2 Civic in 2015, which was seen as a significant change at the time.
Yet going from turbocharged combustion engines to electric power requires a fundamental rethink of how a car is designed, and the driving experience is also very different. Much of a car’s character comes from the layout and type of combustion engine, and with that gone, manufacturers are scrambling to find ways to bring back some of that old-school appeal.
Hyundai and Kia have given their performance EVs fake engine noises and gear shifting in an attempt to retain as much of the traditional performance car driving experience as possible. Toyota is considering going further and offering a simulated stick shift transmission complete with a third pedal. BMW is giving its future M models four individual motors in the quest for power, handling and fun.
Sound and vibration make combustion engines exciting for driving enthusiasts, and they’re completely absent in EVs. They do make up for some of it through outright acceleration, which is considerably better than in a combustion car, but the tradeoff here is they also need to lug around a big battery pack that makes them heavy and has negative consequences for handling and braking.
This focus on ensuring the driving experience is engaging shone through when Honda first confirmed it was studying electric Type R models. Honda technical advisor Ko Yamamoto told Autocar in July 2023 that “Type R is an attribute that maximizes the pleasure of driving and operation. If that pleasure can be transported with an electric car, then that car could be called a Type R”.
At the time, it wasn’t clear if Honda would make a Type R EV, but even the new report doesn’t make it sound like a sure thing. And it clearly has some work to do on making even its more basic EVs fun to drive.
My American colleagues will tell you that the Honda Prologue is good, but far from thrilling. When I drove the Honda e a few years ago, it was one of the most underwhelming and anticlimactic EV driving experiences ever. The expectations for a bespoke EV from Honda with rear-wheel drive were very high, and it just didn’t feel that fun or exciting to drive. More recently, I drove the Honda e:NY1, which couldn’t put its power down at low speeds if you so much as looked at the accelerator pedal. That was like a mix of the worst parts of the first-generation Mini Cooper SE driving experience.
That being said, even though the first electric Mini wasn’t perfect and also had some trouble putting its power down without squandering it through wheel spin, it is to this day one of the most fun EVs I’ve ever driven, and Honda should study it to see what made it such a delight to drive even without fake engine noise or simulated gears.
Mini has considerably toned down the driving manners with the new electric Cooper, which is built on a bespoke EV platform and is a much better electric car, but it just doesn’t feel like a hot hatch in the same way its predecessor did. Honda has its work cut out in its quest to create an electric Type R, and it remains to be seen what the company comes up with.
It could try to extract more power from its latest e:HEV hybrids, whose combustion engine is mainly used as a generator. So you hear an actual engine revving away, but the propulsion comes almost exclusively courtesy of electric motors. Experiencing the system in the latest Civic, if you put it in sport and it starts to simulate gears, you would not know those aren’t actual cogs being swapped—it’s surprisingly engaging for a hybrid.
Perhaps the way forward is to keep a combustion engine primarily producing electricity (and real engine noise) to feed electric motors that provide most of the acceleration. This would allow Honda to use a smaller battery pack and thus keep the vehicle’s weight low, helping it feel nimble and lively through the corners. Based on statements from company officials, Honda isn’t excluding making a hybrid Type R in the future, although it would only be a transitional model that would have to pave the way for a full EV at some point.
