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- The premium claim is not redeemed for DC charging
- Charging curve: Relatively flat, but low
- Charging time: Around 33 to 35 minutes
- Average charging power: only 30 kW
- C rates: only 0.83 C on average
- Recharge range: only 3.8 kilometers per minute
- Comparison with other small (st) electric cars
- Conclusion
- Technical data of the Honda e
The premium claim is not redeemed for DC charging
The Honda e has become extremely chic with its cuddly design and comes with a premium claim – and also with a premium price. The car is available in two engines, but both have the same battery.
The charging network provider Fastned has a charging curve for the Honda e released. In this fast charge analysis let’s examine this curve more closely and compare the fast charging behavior of the Honda e with the competition.
Charging curve: Relatively flat, but low
According to the German price list, the Honda e can charge up to 56 kW, while 50 kW are specified in the USA. There have already been charging processes that reached 49 kW. In the Fastned example, the maximum charging power was slightly lower at 46 kW. According to Fastned, however, the charging took place under optimal conditions (temperature of around 30 degrees).
As can be seen from the diagram, the highest charging capacity is achieved between 10 and 20 percent state of charge (SOC); then it gradually decreases. It is positive that around 20 kW are achieved even with a charge level of 95 percent.
Charging time: Around 33 to 35 minutes
It was estimated that it took about 33 to 35 minutes to load from 20 to 80 percent. The lower limit of 33 minutes comes from a test by Youtuber Bjørn Nyland (see video at the very end of this article). In this test, he also found a slightly higher charging performance than Fastned.
A range of 100 kilometers should be recharged in around 21 to 23 minutes if you start at 10 or 20 percent SOC.
Average charging power: only 30 kW
More important than the maximum charging power is of course the average power in the range of 20 to 80 percent. For the Honda e it is 30 kW (marked in black in the diagram below). Not a very impressive figure. Even if you run the battery down to 10 percent, you only get 31 kW (second column from the left):
C rates: only 0.83 C on average
The so-called C-rate indicates how the charging power relates to the capacity of the battery. For example, 1C is reached if the battery is fully charged in one hour. With the 35.5 kWh battery of the Honda e, an average charging power of 35.5 kW would be required. 2C would be achieved if the process only took half an hour, which would require a charging power of 71 kW.
As the graphic above shows, the maximum C-rate for the Honda e is around 1.3C. The average C-rate when charging from 20 to 80 percent is 0.83 C. That’s a pretty low C-rate, especially considering the car has a liquid-cooled battery. In this way, the heat generated during fast charging could actually be dissipated well, so that higher C-rates also seem possible without the service life of the battery suffering from excessively high temperatures.
Recharge range: only 3.8 kilometers per minute
For long-distance drivers who cannot get by with the range for a trip, it is important how long it takes to recharge additional range. Because this value decides how long you have to twiddle your thumbs at the charging station to cover the rest of the route. Since the WLTP range of the Honda e at 220 km is not great anyway, this value (in kilometers per minute charging time) is particularly important for this car.
How quickly the range can be recharged depends on the average charging power and power consumption. We calculate the latter from the WLTP range (220 km) and the available battery capacity, which Bjørn Nyland estimates is 28.6 kWh. This results in a power consumption of 13.0 kWh / 100 km.
The average charging power and power consumption can now be used to calculate how quickly the range is recharged. To do this, the 30 kW (see above) are divided by the power consumption (130 Wh / km or 7,800 Wmin / km). 30,000 divided by 7,800 equals 3.8; per minute of charging time, a range of 3.8 kilometers is recharged. That is not a convincing value even for a small car. The short range and the low charging power lead to a poor value for range reloading.
The following diagram shows how the C-rate drops as the charging process progresses:
The gray area marks reloading speeds of 5 km per minute and less. The Honda e is already from around 20 percent SOC below, and from 40 percent SOC significantly.
Comparison with other small (st) electric cars
Fiat 500 e (convertible)
VW e-Up
Below we compare the results of the Honda e with those of other small electric models that we have already analyzed:
- Fiat 500 e (42 kWh)
- Renault Zoe Z.E. 50
- Peugeot e-208
- Mini Cooper SE 2020 and BMW i3 (42 kWh)
- VW e-Up
When comparing the charging curves, the red curve of the Honda is far below; So far, only the e-Up (purple) has performed similarly poorly:
The average charging power of 30 kW is only slightly above the value of the VW e-Up:
| Comparison of charging performance and C-rates | |||||
| model | battery (gross) |
Charging power (maximum reached) |
Charging power (Average, 20-80%) |
C rate Max. |
|
(Average,
20-80%)
A comparison of the C rates shows where the problem lies: the average C rate is 0.8. The Zoe has an even lower value, but at least it has a larger battery. The VW e-Up has similar values to the Honda. The competition sometimes loads the battery with up to 2C, as the following diagram shows:
And now the probably most important diagram, the one for reloading range: This shows the disappointing performance of the Honda e again:
Even more interesting is the average speed at which the range is recharged. With the Honda, as mentioned, this is 3.8 km / min; the competition is up to 9 km / min:
- Fiat 500 e (42 kWh): 9 km / min
- Honda e (35.5 kWh): 3.8 km / min
- Renault Zoe Z.E. 50: 4.4 km / min
- Peugeot e-208: 6.7 km / min
- BMW i3 (42 kWh): 6.4 min / km
- Mini Cooper SE: 6.1 km / min
- VW e-Up: 3.9 km / min
Conclusion
Overall, the Honda e offers pretty disappointing fast charging performance. The car is therefore less suitable for long journeys with charging processes en route, even in comparison with other small and micro cars, in particular the even smaller Fiat 500 e.
A low charging power might be easier to get over if the range were large, but this is not the case: the Honda only manages 220 km according to the WLTP standard, while the Fiat or Peugeot, for example, have around 100 km more range.
More about the Honda e and the competition: 
Honda e (2021) in the test: the future in the past tense
Small electric cars from Smart Fortwo to Renault 5
Here is Bjørn Nyland’s (English) quick charge test, in which he also compares it with some other electric cars:
Technical data of the Honda e
- Drive: 1 rear electric motor with 100 or 113 kW
- 0-100 km / h: 9.0 or 8.3 seconds.
- Top speed: 145 km / h
- Range: 210 to 220 km WLTP
- Battery: 35.5 kWh gross (approx. 28.6 kWh net), liquid cooling, cells from Panasonic
- Charging: up to 6.6 kW AC, up to 56 kW DC
- Length: 3.89 meters
- Base price: 33,850 or 38,000 euros
Note: Compared to the original article by Mark Kane Above all, we have explained the meaning of some data in more detail, and we have left out a table in the comparison section.
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