Honda pulls e:Ny1 from UK market in great EV reset

Take a look at Honda’s UK website and you’ll notice a big omission: no electric car. Given carmakers in the UK are legally bound by the ZEV mandate to hit an electric car sales ratio of 33% this year, how does the Japanese company avoid fines? The EV paucity comes after the company decided to axe the Chinese-built e:NY1 EV after less than three years on sale in the UK. The brand struggled to generate organic sales without the help of discounts – since its launch just 7122 were sold here. Honda has told Autocar that the car has "reached the end of its lifecycle in the UK and there are currently no plans for it to return to our line‑up". The car is also missing from configurators in other European markets, including Germany and Spain. Honda will in July launch the less than-£20,000 Super-N electric city car to take over electric duties, but with a range limited to 128 miles, the EV hurdle remains. Honda has been buffeted by global market shocks, leaving its electric strategy severely wanting. In March it scrapped its 0-Series SUV and saloon mere months before production was to start, citing the US government’s U-turn on climate change obligations. It subsequently killed the Afeela electric premium brand developed with Sony, as those cars were due to use 0-Series underpinnings. After years preparing for an electric future the company believed was inevitable in its key markets of the US and China, circumstances got in the way. “During the past few years, our business environment has drastically changed at a speed far exceeding our projection,” Toshihiro Mibe, President and CEO, said in March. Meanwhile Honda’s strategy in China to produce electric cars with partners Dongfeng and GAC has run into the brick wall erected by fierce local competition. There, Honda has the opposite problem to the US – electric sales have taken off, but such has been the pace of development, Honda has been sidelined. “Competitors have launched products and deployed electrification and intelligent technology faster than expected,” Mibe said. Honda’s European sales, meanwhile, have shrunk to levels that mean it can’t really afford to maintain a separate EV strategy for the region. Last year the company registered 71,825 cars across Europe for a market share of just 0.4% according to figures from industry body ACEA. Of those, just 2.6% were electric as e:NY1 sales plummeted. Honda isn’t the only Japanese player struggling with electric. The country’s car makers have been slow out of the gate with the technology, perhaps because in Japan electric plays such a small part in the country’s car sales, accounting for just 1.6% of the 3.8 million total there last year. Indeed, Honda’s sales focus is now on markets with only marginal EV growth, including the US, Japan and India, the company said in its March presentation. Other Japanese car makers, such as Suzuki and Subaru, however have joined forces to collaborate on EVs in regions where they are needed, but relying on partnerships with the dominant brand Toyota. Nissan, meanwhile, has maintained enough of a European presence with its Sunderland facility to be able to create EVs with local buyers in mind, first with the Leaf, now hitting the sweet spot with its third gen model, and later with the newly shown Juke. Local production is becoming almost de rigeur for any car maker selling electric vehicles in Europe as the UK and the European Union reward those models plugged into the local supply chain and exclude those that aren’t. Honda’s decision to close its Swindon plant in 2021 means it can’t localise an EV model to access the UK’s generous electric car grant, leaving it to rely on sourcing from China, the one country that the UK and EU are looking to offer local manufacturers protection from. Competing with companies with access to the grant is becoming very difficult without offering discounts to match it. With the Super-N, Honda switches production from China to Japan. That’s unlikely to unlock the electric grant, but the car’s promised low entry price will at least give Honda some room to generate sales to customers looking for a local runabout with a bit of kei-car character, a low kerb weight of around 1300kg and sporty demeanour with its artificial manual gearbox. Honda is also targeting European markets with the car, for example Spain. The Super-N will definitely fill a gap but history has shown the limitations of kei-car sales in Europe. What comes after Super-N is an open question. Honda in Japan has shown the Insight, an electric hatchback/SUV crossover measuring about 4.8 metres long that reworks the Chinese e:NS2 made by Honda’s JV partner Dongfeng. The car recently appeared at the Bangkok motor show as the e:N2, suggesting it’s ready for right-hand drive export sales. Not all Honda’s homegrown EV development is dead. In the March presentation it confirmed the company is still working on the 0 Alpha electric SUV concept with its ‘thin, light and wise’ design philosophy first shown in 2025 ahead of planned sales in 2027. The car’s target market is Japan but also India, which has relaxed its fearsome new-car tax burden for EVs. “We can see profitability in the future in these regions. That's why we decided to keep this model,” Mibe said. The global strategy for 0 Alpha, which will roughly match the outgoing e:NY1 in size, has yet to be revealed but Japan sales at least overcomes the right-hand-drive hurdle. As far as hitting the ZEV mandate goes, Honda had managed to ramp up e:NY1 sales in the first three months of this year to hit an impressive electric share of 17.3% according to figures from electric-focused transport research organisation NewAutomotive. That doesn’t leave Honda too far adrift of its ‘real’ target of 22.7% EV sales, according to NewAutomotive calculations, which takes into account the various flexibilities allowed by the system, including CO2 reduction from electrified vehicles. (Honda’s all-hybrid line-up helps on that score, with an extra boost from its sole plug-in hybrid model, the CR-V e:PHEV.) However, a dramatic 65% drop in sales of its best-selling Jazz supermini across the first three months suggests the company is having to limit sales of some combustion engine models to avoid fines inflicted by missing the ZEV target. CEO Mibe in March admitted Honda has struggled to stay flexible enough to keep pace with changes to global legislation on electric, but says the company hasn’t abandoned EVs and promised he would say more in May. “As of today, EV demand is declining in North America and other regions. However, this trend will not be permanent,” he said. “To achieve carbon neutrality when EV demand resumes, Honda will be ready to fulfill customer expectations.”

main menu

Honda pulls e:Ny1 from UK market in great EV reset

Japanese company now sells no electric cars in the UK as it struggles with electrification globally

Add your comment

More from Autocar

Top 10s

Top manufacturers

Quick search

Legal bits

About Autocar

main menu

Honda pulls e:Ny1 from UK market in great EV reset

Japanese company now sells no electric cars in the UK as it struggles with electrification globally

Autocar Login Block

Add your comment

More from Autocar

Top 10s

Top manufacturers

Quick search

We recommend

Legal bits

About Autocar