Honda Civic Review: Price, range and boot space

Honda Super N: Everything you need to know

The last time Honda made an electric city car, it didn't go so well. The Honda e looked great and had a fabulous interior, but it was far too expensive for its size and limited electric range. Sales were poor, and Honda pulled the plug less than four years after the car was launched in the UK. For its indirect successor, the Hodna Super N, things are being done very differently.y 

The Super N is the first Honda officially sold outside Japan based on a Kei car platform. Meaning 'light', Kei is a class of vehicle in Japan with tightly controlled exterior dimensions, with benefits for owners in terms of tax, insurance costs and an exemption from the 'Shako Shomeisho' rule that normally prohibits drivers from registering a car unless they have a parking spot. 

Away from Japan, though, there's no need to stick quite so rigidly to the rules, so the length of the Super N has increased from the 3.4-metre Kei maximum to 3.6 metres. Honda has also bumped up the track widths by 50mm for better handling. 

Power comes from a 30kWh battery pack and a single, front axle-mounted motor. And not a particularly powerful one, offering just 64PS, but there is a boost mode which bumps this up to a more respectable 95PS. There are even simulated gears and engine noise to make for a more fun time behind the wheel.

Despite the growth, the Super N is still a very compact car. A lot of its rivals, including the BYD Dolphin Surf and Citroen e-C3, are around four metres in length. Closest in terms of size is the Leapmotor T03, while the Dacia Spring is slightly longer. 

Although the boot space is as modest as you might expect for such a small car, the Super N is reasonably practical. Its tall roof gives abundant headroom and a healthy cargo capacity when the rear seats are folded, the bases of which can also be positioned vertically to help load especially tall items. Rear legroom is surprisingly good, too. 

How we tested the Honda Super N

We drove the Super N on a variety of different roads in both its standard mode and in the Boost setting. We had a good play around with the infotainment system, and drove the car with its assistance systems turned on. We also tried out the flexible folding rear seat arrangement, had a good look in the boot and tried out the rear seats for both head and legroom. We also had access to many of the engineers behind the development of the car, and were able to gain further insight into how it was designed and built. 

Is the Honda Super N a good car?

We might have been tempted to say the Super N was a great car, but as fun as it is to drive (and it really is fun), we can't help but wonder if many buyers would prefer something a bit more comfortable. It's stiffly set up, which means little in the way of body roll, but also a lack of compliance over poorer road surfaces. And that accounts for a lot of the UK highway network these days. 

If you're willing to put up with that, though, the Super N is a great choice at this low end of the EV market. It adds a shot of desirability and fun in an area dominated by dull pragmatism, but that isn't all it's got going for it. A flexible interior makes the car reasonably practical for its size, and it's well equipped for the money, if not quite as much of a bargain as some rivals. 

Honda Super N Range

The use of a small battery (even some plug-in hybrids have bigger capacities than the Super N) makes for a modest range of 128 miles according to the WLTP cycle, which might amount to more like 100 during colder months. Still, the official figure is not far off the much more expensive Honda e, and similar to the entry-level version of the Citroen e-C3. Then again, the Leapmotor T03 undercuts both the Honda and Citroen significantly and yet manages a more impressive 165 miles on a full charge. 

All of these range figures might prove off-putting, but Honda is keen to stress that this is an acceptable amount of range for a car that's intended to spend most of its time in urban areas. 

Honda Super N Charging

The Super N's 50kW rapid charging capability might not sound anything special, but it's what we'd expect for an EV of this price and battery size. In any case, it's a good step up from the 30kW offered by the smallery battery version of the Citroen e-C3, but a bit behind the 65kW capability of an entry-level BYD Dolphin Surf. 

Because the battery isn't big, you shouldn't ever be waiting too long to top the Super N up at a public charging point. Assuming conditions are optimal, a 15-80% charge is possible in around 30 minutes. The maximum it can draw from a UK home wallbox is 6.6kW, slightly lower than the 7.4kW maximum these devices usually output. This adds roughly half an hour to a full charge from empty, which will take about four and a half hours. 

Honda went far further with the Super N in terms of its chassis than it arguably needed to. There's far more attention paid to the car's dynamics than with any other cheap EV, with the engineers giving the Super N a 50mm wider track, beefed up suspension components and Yokohama Advan Flexa tyres that are more about providing high grip and traction than lowering rolling resistance, the latter usually being the aim of the game for EVs.

This all works together to make the Super N an absolute hoot whether you're rapidly changing lanes around town and enthusiastically tackling roundabouts, or heading away from urban areas and bombing down a twisty country lane. 

The tall Super N looks like it should lean and wobble its way around, but in fact, it stays very flat. There's also plenty of grip and good traction, save for a little scrabbling from the front wheels if you exit a side turning at full throttle. The steering is a highlight, too. It's very natural feeling, with a good amount of weight. It's also very quick. 

The flipside of the Super Ns sporty focus is its firm ride. Instead of filtering out imperfections in the road surface, it sends them thudding into the cabin. Bigger hits, including speed bumps and chunkier potholes, must be taken with care. This might become tiring over time.

There's also quite a lot of wind noise when the speeds rise, although that's a common thing for EVs at this low end of the market. 

Honda Super N batteries and motors 

There's only one battery and motor combination available in the Super N. It's a 29.6kWh unit, powering a single, front axle-mounted motor. Under normal operation, that motor isn't very powerful at all. It produces just 64PS and 119Nm, providing a leisurely 0-62mph time of 14.5 seconds. That makes the Super N one of the slowest cars on sale.

It has an ace up its sleeve, though, in the form of its 'Boost' mode. Enabled with a press of a purple button on the steering wheel, it bumps the motor output to 95PS and 162Nm. Still nothing incredible, but the Super N weighs under 1,100kg (several hundred kilos less than most rivals), the increase makes for a reasonably sprightly 10-second 0-62mph sprint. 

Again, nothing amazing, but as we often see with EVs and their ability to instantly produce their maximum torque figure, the Super N feels nicely brisk off the line. There's a sustained feeling of acceleration, too, because of another little trick the Super N can pull. 

It has a similar 'Honda S+ Shift' system to the Prelude, giving seven simulated gears, accompanied by some fake engine noise inspired by the DC2 Honda Integra Type R. Honda went as far as varying what you hear from each of the car's speakers, so some of it sounds like induction noise coming from the 'engine', and some is more like 'exhaust' noise at the rear.

The S+ Shift system adds an extra layer of fun to the already entertaining driving experience. It'll even halt your progress at a 'rev limiter' in its full manual mode if you fail to 'shift up' with the steering wheel-mounted paddle. The fake engine noise, meanwhile, sounds like something from a decades-old video game, and yet it works surprisingly well.  

We wondered if the Boost mode might only be available for short periods of time, but when testing the Super N, we mostly left the car in this setting without any issues. 

The Honda Super N hasn't been tested by Euro NCAP, and as a car whose European sales are restricted to only the UK, it seems unlikely it ever will be. 

Its lack of availability outside of the UK means it also doesn't have to come with an audible speed limit warning. The car does actually pick up speed limits and displays them in the instrument cluster, but exceeding them merely causes the digital representation of the sign to flash. Some might prefer this – the technology still has its limitations, and we frequently test cars that erroneously display a limit as lower than it actually is. 

There is lane assistance, although it's fairly unobtrusive in its operation. Combine this with a lack of driver attention monitor (another piece of technology we've experienced issues with in other vehicles), and you have a car that's much less frustrating to drive than many rivals. 

You do still get autonomous emergency braking, though, plus adaptive cruise control, front and rear parking sensors and a rear parking camera, albeit one that's quite poor in terms of image quality. All Super Ns also get a range of front, side and curtain airbags.

The Super N's boot space of 162 litres is underwhelming when cars like the Citroen e-C3 and BYD Dolphin Surf offer more than 300. We can't really give the Super N a free pass because of its length, because the similarly sized Leapmotor T03 is still quite a bit better with its 202-litre boot. 

The N's tall body means it punches slightly above its weight (or rather, size) when the rear seats are folded, with a total of 967 litres available when loading up to the roof. The Super N also gets a version of the 'Magic Seats' found in the Jazz and HR-V. The seat bases can be flipped up to meet the seat backs, which could come in handy for securely loading taller items. 

There's also a healthy amount of legroom considering the Super N's compact dimensions, and its high ceiling gives an abundance of headroom for all occupants. The narrow footprint does mean it's a strict four-seater, much like the Dolphin Surf, but unlike the e-C3, which can seat five. 

Interior storage isn't all that impressive. The Super N doesn't have door pockets, with the inner door panels instead each fitted with a cupholder. There's another cupholder between the front seats. 

There's nowhere to stow a normal-sized smartphone, because the storage tray just behind that final cupholder is too narrow. There is a shelf on the dashboard with what looks like an ident for a phone, but it's not much good unless you have a smaller device. But hey, if you own something like an iPhone SE, you can be pretty smug. 

Honda Super N dimensions

The Honda Super N is 3599mm long, 1573mm wide (not including door mirrors) and 1608mm tall. A lot of its rivals, including the Citroen e-C3, are more like four metres long, and most are a fair bit wider. The Fiat 500e is a similar length but has one less pair of doors than the Super N, while the Hyundai Inster is similarly narrow to the Honda and almost as tall.

Expectations shouldn't be high in terms of material quality inside an electric car costing under £20,000, but even so, the Super N doesn't meet them. Similarly priced EVs do a better job of 'hiding' their more low-rent elements below your eyeline, but that's not the case here – most of what you can see across the dashboard is cheap plastics, and it's the same for the inner door panels. Soft-touch materials are all but absent.  

Everything seems screwed together just fine, though, and most materials feel quite tough. They're just not in any way premium.

The Super N uses a nine-inch touchscreen infotainment system, a unit common to many other Honda models. It's a simple system to use, which responds well to touch inputs, but it's looking quite dated in terms of its graphics these days. We like that you don't have to use it for the infotainment settings, though – there's a separate row of physical buttons for these. 

Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are included as standard, and the integration seems slick. On that note, though, there's nowhere to put your device, as we explain in the practicality section of this review. 

Joining the infotainment system is a seven-inch digital instrument cluster, which clearly displays all the key information you might need. This goes purple when the Boost mode is enabled, displaying three dials – a 'rev counter', 'boost gauge' and a digital representation of an analogue speedometer.  

We normally don't expect much from the sound systems of cars at this price, so it's nice to see the Super N coming with a seven-speaker (plus subwoofer) setup as standard.

This is the latest On The Road (OTR) price for the new Honda Super N as of June 2026 – prices can change, so please use these as a guide before checking Honda's latest price lists. 

Is the Honda Super N good value compared to rivals?

The Super N isn't helped by its ineligibility for the government's electric car grant (ECG), something we're not expecting to change, given how far away it's built (Japan). Cars that are built closer to the UK, like the Citroen e-C3, undercut the Super N once the Band 2 grant is applied. In the case of the Citroen, it's about £500 cheaper for something more practical. 

As for a more similarly sized rival, the incoming Renault Twingo could be a major foil for the Super N. At the time of writing, we didn't know the cost, but we reckon it'll be very similar, if not a bit cheaper if it ends up getting a grant.

Undercutting the Super N by even more are the Leapmotor T03 and Dacia Spring, coming in at several thousand pounds less. Each is a similar size to the Super N, but neither drives anywhere near as nicely. In fact, we'd go so far as saying the Spring is quite unpleasant behind the wheel, while the T03 isn't much better.

At the other end of the scale, the Hyundai Inster is quite a bit pricier than the Super N at £23,755 and up. It feels like a similar sort of thing, being derived from a vehicle built to Korea's equivalent class to Japan's Kei cars. 

Fully charging the Super N's battery will cost a mere £7.50 on a typical UK tariff, and potentially a fraction of that for those on EV tariffs who are able to time their charging sessions to coincide with cheaper off-peak rates. 

This could make the Super N very cheap to run, even though EVs are now liable for the same £200 annual tax bill from year two as cars using other fuel sources. You might want to do some good shopping around for insurance, though, because it's in insurance group 27, compared to group 14 for a BYD Dolphin Surf and 22 for a Citroen e-C3.

The Super N has a three-year, 90,000-mile warranty as standard, although this extends for up to eight years and 100,000 miles of cover if you keep the car serviced on schedule at a Honda dealership. There's also the mandated 100,000 miles and eight years of cover for the battery regardless of where it's serviced. This guarantees at least 70% of the original battery capacity remains. 

Honda has an excellent reliability record, frequently appearing near the top of the reliability rankings of our HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index. Given that EVs have fewer moving parts and thus less to go wrong, the Super N should provide a dependable ownership prospect. 

Is the Honda Super N a Kei car? 

The Super N is based on Honda's Kei car platform, but it's been lengthened and widened beyond the regulatory limits for a Kei car.

How much is the Honda Super N?

The Honda Super N costs £18,995 in the UK.

How fast is the Honda Super N?

Normally, the Super N develops 64PS, making for a leisurely 14.5-second 0-62mph time. The Boost mode ups the power to 95PS, dropping the 0-62mph time to around 10 seconds.

The Honda Super N is offered in one specification rather than having multiple trim levels. 

The following equipment is fitted as standard:

• 15-inch alloy wheels
• Nine-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Seven-inch digital instrument cluster
• Wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto
• Heated front seats
• Electrically adjustable and folding door mirrors
• Keyless entry/start
• Parking sensors
• Rear parking camera