City driving has reached the point where your car apparently needs to be small enough to apologize to a parking space before entering it, yet dramatic enough to make the grocery run feel like a low-budget action sequence.
That is more or less the operating philosophy behind the Honda Super-N, a compact electric city car that looks like it escaped from a Japanese kei-car cartoon and immediately found a charger. It is tiny, boxy, purple if you choose the gloriously named Boost Violet Pearl, and weirdly committed to making sensible urban transportation feel like a toy you are legally allowed to commute in.
The Super-N is Honda’s new small EV for the UK, and its whole personality is built around doing little-car things with maximum theatrical effort. It has friendly round LED headlights, a contrast roof, a stubby hatchback body, sporty seats, aero ducts, and a front charging port that saves you from the parking-lot yoga routine of trying to line up a cable with the wrong side of the car.
The part that makes it especially OddityMall-worthy is BOOST Mode. In regular driving, the compact e-Axle produces 47 kW, which is polite little EV behavior. Press the BOOST button and it jumps to 70 kW, while the cockpit shifts from blue to purple and the car starts pretending it has gears. Yes, this electric city car has simulated gear shifts, because apparently Honda looked at silent efficiency and said, “What if this also did theater?”
Honda says BOOST Mode brings a simulated seven-speed transmission and engine sound, giving the Super-N a more playful feel when you want your daily commute to have a tiny soundtrack. It is not trying to be a supercar. It is more like a very focused city runabout that keeps a fake racing helmet in the glovebox emotionally, if not literally.
Range is city-minded rather than road-trip-grandiose. Honda lists up to 128 miles of WLTP combined range and up to 199 miles in City Mode, where stop-start driving helps the numbers look more like the kind of thing a small EV was born to do. A 15% to 80% charge is expected to take around 30 minutes on a 50 kW DC charger, and the car can be charged from the front so nobody has to perform the ancient ritual of reversing three times while a cable judges them.
The Super-N also has the sensible stuff tucked under the silliness. It seats four, has Honda SENSING driver assistance features, supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto through a 9-inch Honda CONNECT screen, and includes the kind of compact packaging that makes small cars feel like they are cheating physics.
It measures only about 3.6 meters long, which means it should be genuinely useful in cramped streets, school-run chaos, apartment parking, and the sort of city spaces designed by someone who believed all cars were bicycles with doors. Honda also points to Magic Seats for more flexible storage, which is the practical half of the car politely reminding the fun half that somebody still has to bring home flat-pack shelves, groceries, or the suspiciously large thing you said would “definitely fit.”
The cabin leans into the playful mood with sporty front seats, blue accents, ambient lighting, and an available premium Bose sound setup. The audio detail is funny because a small EV does not need to feel like a rolling music lounge, but it is delightful when tiny things are treated with excessive seriousness. That is how you end up respecting a toaster, a desk fan, or apparently a purple electric hatchback with opinions.
Why It Is So Weirdly Charming
The Super-N works because it refuses to be a cold little appliance. It is clearly designed for urban life, but it does not wear the usual expression of a car that has been optimized into emotional silence. It has cute headlights, punchy colors, a BOOST button, artificial gear changes, and a cabin that changes its mood when you prod it into fun mode.
That combination makes it a good fit for someone who wants an affordable small EV but cannot emotionally survive another anonymous blob of transportation. It is practical enough for short commutes and errands, but odd enough that you will probably explain it to at least three neighbors before the charging cable is even unplugged.
Price And Availability
The Honda Super-N is listed by Honda UK from £18,995, which is about $25,000 depending on exchange rates. It is currently a UK-market Honda product, so American shoppers may need to admire it from across the internet like a forbidden snack with headlights.
If your idea of a sensible city car includes round-eyed retro styling, front charging, flexible seats, a purple cockpit mood swing, and fake gear shifts in an EV, the Super-N may be the rare small car that understands adulthood is easier when your errands come with a BOOST button.
Image credit: Honda / New Atlas