Price: Three-Year Lease $389/Month or $36,625 Total Lease Payment
Competitors: Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Ford Focus EV
Powertrain: 92-kw electric motor, 20-kwh lithium-ion battery, 6.6-kw onboard charger (120/240-volt)
Fuel Economy (City/Highway combined): 118 mpge
What's New: Honda is dipping a cautious toe into the EV pool. The new Honda Fit EV will be offered as a three-year lease, and you'll only find them in California and Oregon?states with the most built-out EV infrastructure. In early 2013 Honda will expand availability to six East Coast cities. Even then, don't expect to see them on every street corner; Honda says there are just 1100 Fits available. By contrast, rival Nissan has already sold 27,000 Leafs worldwide as of April. But the difference between these two cars comes down to driving fun. Honda has developed this EV to plaster a smile on your face.
The Fit EV only comes in one flavor: fully loaded and painted Reflection Blue Pearl. In place of the gasoline, Fit's 117-hp 1.5-liter inline-four-cylinder engine is a 92-kw electric motor (largely the same unit found in the lease-only Honda FCX Clarity fuel-cell car) fed by an air-cooled 20-kwh Toshiba lithium-ion with a lithium-titanate-oxide anode. The battery pack is mounted underneath the floor and extends from the area under the front seats all the way back to the rear seats. The flat, wide battery pack hangs lower than the floorpan on the gasoline Fit, so to maintain ground clearance on the electric Fit, engineers raised its suspension. Honda also included new ground effects to cover the low-hanging battery pack. The entire Fit EV is optimized for aerodynamics?thanks to new flat underbody panels and a nose with a smaller air intake, the EV has a 14 percent lower coefficient of drag than the ordinary Fit. All this conspires to deliver a cruising range of 82 miles on a combined route.
The 6.6-kw charging system means that you can fully charge a Fit EV in less than 3 hours on 240-volt charger. Honda says a 120-volt outlet would charge the Fit EV in less than 15 hours. Those times are an improvement over the Nissan Leaf's, but for 2013 the Leaf will offer an upgraded 6.6-kw charger, too.
To ensure the Fit didn't lose any functionality with its large pack aboard, Honda replaced the rear beam axle suspension with a more compact, multilink design. The rear seats are mounted higher and reclined slightly, resulting in more rear seat legroom than the standard Fit (or even an Accord). But the drawback is an 8.6-cubic-foot reduction in cargo capacity behind that seat. Also, the seatback no longer folds flush with the floor, meaning the Fit's practical "magic seat" isn't part of the Fit EV package.
Tech Tidbit: Honda's new electric-servo brake system doesn't completely ditch the hydraulics in favor of a fully electric brake system. Instead, the system activates the brake piston's hydraulic pressure electronically as needed, providing more efficient and precise control of the brake system. As a bonus, there's a 5 percent improvement in regenerative brake-energy recovery. The system provides a smoother, more predictable brake feel over other vehicles with regenerative brakes.
Driving Character: Despite weighing 624 pounds more than the heaviest gasoline Fit, the new EV leaps off the line. That's because there's a full 189 lb-ft of torque from that electric motor available as soon as your foot touches the throttle. This gives a bit of tire squeal, as the 185/60R15 tires are smaller and harder than those on a gas Fit.
The Fit EV has a unique three-mode system (borrowed from the CR-Z) to adjust throttle response at the push of a button. Econ mode limits power to 47 kw under normal acceleration with 75 kw at full throttle, which boosts range by about 17 percent when you use the car's eco-coaching function. Normal mode makes 75 kw available all the time. And Sport mode gives you the full 92 kw of power. Honda says the cruising range shrinks by about 10 percent in Sport mode.
On our short drive on the hills around Pasadena, Calif., we found Econ mode to be largely sufficient, thanks to the unwavering 189 lb-ft of torque no matter which mode you select. It is exceedingly fun to select Sport and drive the Fit EV like a sports sedan. It's speedy, and the response from the right pedal is nearly instantaneous. The Fit EV also has a more aggressive "B" regenerative-braking mode that the driver can select on the gearshift. It seems entirely possible that one could drive around a cityscape in this mode without ever touching the brakes.
Bend the Fit EV into a set of switchbacks, and it feels buttoned down and much lighter on its tires than its weight suggests. But get a bit overenthusiastic with the throttle in Sport mode, and it's easy to forget the low rolling resistance of the tires in a corner. The electrically assisted steering is quick and takes little effort. Engineers say it has unique mapping for use in the Fit EV, but it seems just as direct as the standard Fit. Under most circumstances this EV handles just like the frisky gasoline Fit we have always adored.
Favorite Detail: Every electric Fit comes with a unique remote control in addition to the normal key fob. The remote allows you to initiate charging of the car (assuming its plugged in) and set the interior temperature as long as you are within 100 feet of the car. The remote's display panel shows the charge status, level of charge, and current interior temperature. For those with smart phones, there are both Android and iPhone apps that offer a deeper level of control; they let you schedule charging for off-peak hours, for instance, or direct you to the nearest charging stations.
Driver's Grievance: We get it?it's an EV designed to travel as far as possible on a charge of electricity. But why not offer a slightly more handling-friendly tire package? We'd trade some range and efficiency for a bit more grip, especially if our commute to work included a twisty road.
The Bottom Line: The Fit EV proves that there is room for a fun-to-drive electric vehicle that doesn't cost as much as a Mercedes-Benz S-Class. And its range of 82 miles and 118 mpge fuel economy beats its competitors. The fact that this is a only a lease program for the 2013 and 2014 model years leads us to imagine that perhaps an even more powerful and efficient version will be right around the corner, especially as the gas Fit is due to be redesigned soon. Perhaps we'll see an all-new Fit, Fit Hybrid, and Fit EV. That's a lineup that looks awfully smart to us.
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