Wednesday 30th November 2011

Honda unveils EV-STER electric roadster at Tokyo

Is RWD roadster an electric take on the old Honda Beat? We hope so

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This slinky roadster is called the Honda EV-STER (no, we can't work out how to pronounce it either) and is effectively Honda's take on a Tesla Roadster.

These days, no motor show stand from a major manufacturer can get away without some attempt at making green motoring sexy, exciting, sporty or fun in some other way, but we have to say that Honda's attempt with the EV-STER seems to be better than most.

The rear-drive electric roadster concept promises low weight (we don't know exactly what, but it does come via extensive use of carbon fibre) and decent pace. And it must be a lightweight, because even though it's pretty compact (we're talking almost Kei-car dimensions) its electric motor generates just 58KW (equivalent to just 80hp) and yet it manages 0-62mph in an estimated 5.0secs, on the way to a 100mph top speed.

And the other notable point? A 'twin-lever steering wheel' that has been (and we quote) "adopted for the thorough pursuit of the joy of driving". Doubt that one will make production, mind...

There's no word on plans for a production version, but a 21st-century take on the old Honda Beat sounds like a fine idea to us...

 

 

[bert11]

cool!

[andreas542]

That looks fantastic! Would happily see Honda at the front of the electric sports car field!

[IAJO]

they lowered the roofline of the civic and then chopped it. Bored of all these drawings of electric cars that never appear on the road and quite frankly never will. Might as well say its powered by unicorn farts and replenishes the ozone layer the more miles you do, its not like they'll ever make one to test these claims. No way that'll have room for the 1 million batteries it'll need to have any meaningful range and even the best battery tech in phones and laptops etc.. still get a few fires from overheating, cant see this tech working well for some time to come. Be ethanol/lpg for the win when oil runs out.

[10 Pence Short]

Gash.

Anyway, this is Honda. They'll pretend they're going to make it, test it, tease about it then can it in favour of spending money making the Civic more pretentiously ste and adding 4bhp to their 900 year old diesel engine.

[Prof Prolapse]

10 Pence Short said:

They'll pretend they're going to make it, test it, tease about it then can it in favour of spending money making the Civic more pretentiously ste and adding 4bhp to their 900 year old diesel engine.

LOL!

[r1ch]

I think it's stupid and ugly.

[alexpa]

Tron. Weird face. I'd swap the brushless motor for a higher kv one.

[thinfourth2]

It would be nice if they made this at a sensible price.

I'd like it as my house doesn't move around at will, my daily milage is under 42 miles and i have access to another car

[diddly69]

In the 'pursuit of the joy of driving' or whatever they said, why not put in a real world petrol engine? Stop the gimmicks and give us some Vtec YO

[timewatch]

Playstation 3 meet's Lego!

Another dream!

TW>>:-(

[derboy]

It looks fantastic! Well done honda.

[Mark Wibble]

I like it!

Fair play to concepts like this appearing- momentum will build they'll start popping up on the roads. The concepts are necessary to drive battery technology and recharging infrastructure.