Honda Super-N review

Driving position

Driving the Honda Super-N is a totally different experience from other small cars, because its Japanese-inspired kei car (Japan’s smallest class of car) dimensions give it a whole new seating position.

Instead of feeling like you’re driving a small car, it feels like you’re driving a big car that’s just small. Make sense?

What we mean by this is that all the visual cues you’ve expect from a bigger SUV, like visibility over the bonnet and upright windows for solid all-round visibility, are there.

But because it’s derived from a kei car, it’s extremely compact, so judging its outer extremities and weaving it through the narrowest of side streets and lanes should be a piece of... panko.

The front seats look like they've been borrowed from a hot hatch, with some pretty tight bolstering, but while that keeps your body nestled firmly in position, there is a distinct lack of arm support.

Thin door cards mean there’s not enough space to rest your right arm, and the lack of a central armrest (typical of all small cars) means we often found ourselves grasping onto the passenger seat just for some arm support. It’s fine, unless you have a passenger there.

The small battery pack also helps improve the driving position – it’s small and thin, so it doesn’t force the floor up and make for an awkward seat height.

Tech and features

Honda Super-N trims

– Advance

Honda’s taken a leaf out of new Chinese car brands when it comes to trims – the OMODA 9 springs to mind as a top-spec-only car.

That’s where the Super-N comes into its own, because it’s a top-spec, one-and-done car that’s actually affordable. We’re talking ‘sub-£20,000 when new’ affordable.

Advance kits out the Super-N with a nine-inch infotainment system, a seven-inch driver’s display, a genuinely impressive BOSE sound system that’s louder and bassier than you’d ever believe, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, keyless entry, parking sensors and a reversing camera.

Realistically, the Super-N is packed with everything you could possibly need in a modern-day car, but it doesn’t feel as spaceship as something like a Hyundai INSTER, which feels more polished inside.

What you do get, though, are easy-to-use physical buttons and an inoffensive touchscreen infotainment system that’s got the basics covered.

Electric motors and power

Honda Super-N performance stats

– Power: 95hp

– 0-62mph: 10.1 to 14.5 seconds

– Top speed: Up to 83mph

– Driven wheels: Front-wheel drive (FWD)

The Honda Super-N only has one motor configuration, but it sort of ticks two boxes in one. Turn the car on and hit drive, and you’ll get instant access to 64hp. It’s good for 0-62mph in 14.1 seconds, which is painfully slow by today’s standards.

But because it’s an electric car with no gears (sort of) and instant torque delivery, it never ever feels as slow as it sounds on paper – a petrol car with the same performance would feel much slower.

A special BOOST button on the steering wheel unlocks the full 95hp and transforms the car entirely. Enabling this mode ignites the fake engine sound, and just like the Hyundai IONIQ 5 N, fake engine sounds mimic a petrol hot hatch.

This mode turns the smooth single-speed electric gearbox into a fake seven-speed auto, with fake jolts pretending to be gear changes.

Acceleration is broadly in line with rivals – the Renault Twingo E-Tech, Dacia Spring, Leapmotor T03 and BYD DOLPHIN SURF all manage 0-62mph in the 10-12-second mark, give or take.

If you want more performance, the BYD DOLPHIN SURF’s 156hp option does offer a bit more, but with as little as 45hp in the earliest models, the Dacia Spring proves this little Honda isn’t at the back of the pack.

Handling and ride comfort

Handling is why the Honda Super-N is such a joy – for being such a small, affordable and relatively simple car, it wears so many hats.

For sedate town driving, City mode has got you covered, softening throttle response to reduce battery drain and dialling regenerative braking all the way up to one-pedal driving.

Normal, Sport and Economy modes also alter the driving characteristics, with the wheel-mounted paddles giving you the choice of different levels of regenerative braking from the full one-pedal experience to virtually nothing – just like a petrol car.

BOOST mode turns those paddles into fake gear shifters, so it feels as much like driving a petrol hot hatch as Honda intended.

It’s pretty tall compared to its length and width, so there’s a bit of lean in corners if your driving is, let’s say, more enthusiastic, but that adds to its character.

It does an alright job of handling bumps around town, but the small wheelbase doesn’t exactly help. Honda’s done the best job it can with the footprint it’s been given, and that’s all we could ask for.

We even took the Super-N on a 100-mile motorway round trip, where it was able to keep up with fast-flowing traffic in the outside lane without missing a beat.

Obviously, wind and tyre noise are noticeable in such a small car, but it’s no worse than any other compact hatchback.

But all in all, we think the Super-N feels more at home around town or on mid-speed country lanes, where its narrow dimensions and chuckable handling make it a real hoot.

Boot space

Honda Super-N boot space:

– Boot space: 162 litres

– Incl. rear seats folded: 618 litres

162 litres is laughable – the Hyundai INSTER has a 238-litre boot, the Leapmotor T03 has 210 litres, the Dacia Spring 308 and the Renault Twingo E-Tech 305.

The Twingo and INSTER also stand out for their sliding seats, so with smaller children or no rear-seat passengers in tow, the boot size can grow pretty considerably.

But nothing comes close to how practical the Super-N is in real life – something tech specs don’t begin to illustrate.

Firstly, the rear seats fold completely flat, so the back of the Super-N is more like a baby van than an awkward city car.

But secondly, Honda’s Magic Seats feature in this, its smallest car for the UK market.

The bases fold up and lock into place so that the entire rear footwells open up.

Not the typical test, we know, but five SCUBA cylinders could fit side-by-side on the rear footwell (and considerably more if you stacked them). Put them in the boot – you say.

The boot would absolutely have managed (with the seats folded), but by raising the Magic Seats, they were lower and more protected, instead of rattling around. No other manufacturer offers a similar feature, so Honda deserves all the praise for this outside-of-the-box thinking.

Rear seats

Like core rivals, the Super-N is a strict four-seater, but it’s surprisingly usable.

The rear doors open widely, and the tall roof means adults should generally feel pretty comfortable in the back. Legroom is also better than we’d expected, though under-thigh support is lacking.

As for the rear bench itself, it’s pretty basic, and the seats take on a characterless dark fabric design instead of the multicolour sports seats up front.

We’re not asking for miracles, but a tiny bit more seat sculpting and maybe some cupholders wouldn’t go amiss.

Storage solutions

Rear-seat passengers do at least get small cupholders in the doors, in place of regular door bins. There’s not much else to talk of at the back.

Up front, the central area between the seats has some open storage and there’s a shelf cut out from the dashboard for, presumably, mobile phones, hence the phone-shaped cutout. But an iPhone 17 Pro wouldn’t fit.

There’s also one dashboard-mounted cupholder to the right of the steering wheel (à la Honda Jazz), and another down between the seats.

Honda Super-N dimensions

– Height: 1,608mm

– Width: 1,573mm

– Length: 3,599mm

– Kerb weight: 1,097kg

Safety

Euro NCAP hasn’t officially tested the Super-N at the time of writing, but it’s worth noting that the amount of active driver aids included at this end of the market is much higher than you’d expect.

Standard-fit Honda SENSING kit includes collision avoidance systems, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist and more, so it’s got the basic self-driving support systems you get on bigger cars as well as the other safety systems.

Range and charging

Honda Super-N: electric range, battery and charging

– Range: 128 miles

– Battery size: 29.6kWh

– Max charging speed: 50kW

– Charge port location: Front (bonnet)

– Charge time (AC): 4.5 hours with a 7kW charger

– Charge time (DC): 15-80% in 30 minutes

– Efficiency: 4.2 mi/kWh (claimed)

In short, the Super-N is average in terms of charging and slightly above average when it comes to efficiency.

AC charging is capped to 6.6kW, which is just below the 7.4kW standard home charger most people will get installed. A full charge takes around 4.5 hours, though, so that should be well within most off-peak tariffs, enabling you full access to cheap running costs.

With a 7.5p off-peak rate, expect a full charge of 128 miles to cost you around £2.22, but off-peak rates vary by provider and region.

Even if you needed to do a quick emergency charge with a ‘granny charger’/three-pin domestic socket, which isn’t often recommended for long-term use, each hour gives you around 7-8% charge because the battery’s so small.

Rapid charging at 50kW is far below some industry leaders, which can accept hundreds of kilowatts, but the battery’s so small that a 15-80% top-up in 30 minutes is actually on-par with most standard EVs.

That’s charging covered, now onto range. With a claimed efficiency score of 4.2mi/kWh, it doesn’t sound much better than bigger and heavier cars. But on a 100-mile motorway trip (electric cars’ worst nightmare), we got 4.7mi/kWh, so the Super-N is clearly exceptionally efficient. Admittedly, this was at the height of summer in 25-degree conditions, and winter range will likely drop.

For reference, we got similar figures from a base-spec Tesla Model Y, which is known for its efficiency, but not quite as much in the all-electric Nissan MICRA.

With around 15% left in the tank after 100 miles, our theoretical motorway range works out at around 117 miles, which is as we’d expect.

Honda claims 199 miles of city range, at slower speeds, and we’ve no reason not to believe this, having seen well over 6mi/kWh on short trips.

Reliability

The Super-N is brand new, so long-term data isn’t quite there yet. But Honda’s general reputation is one of exceptional build quality and durability.

This car’s uncomplicated electric running gear also means there’s less to go wrong, and servicing should work out very reasonable. Crucially, consumables like tyres should also work out to be cheap.

A quick Google search confirms that like-for-like factory tyres are comfortably under £100 a piece, and budget tyres are closer to the £50 mark.

The three-year vehicle warranty is merely a token gesture, because with annual servicing at recognised garages, you can extend this to eight years/100,000 miles, so it’s up there with the best in the business.