What’s the best EV for interior design?

Seeing as we all spend so much time in our cars – a survey back in 2018 pinned it at nine hours a week, although that might have dipped a smidge recently – why aren’t the interiors better? We wouldn’t deck out our kitchens in grey plastic and flimsy integrated appliances, and all we do there is chuck things in the microwave and make cups of tea. 

We’ve got the Honda e to thank for attempting to raise the game a little – it was a breath of fresh air when it arrived in 2020, with an interior that’s among the most pleasant of all cars on the market, not just the electric ones. It still has the motoring press gaga over its bold lines, comfort-oriented sofa fabrics and classy faux wood trims. It remains quite grey, mind, but a much classier grey.

The Honda e doesn’t just look nicer, though – those clever people in Japan really thought about the interior tech when they put this car together. It’s rare to see it all so seamlessly integrated, but the Honda e’s interior is stylish and full of the sorts of details you’ll want to show off to your friends. And that’s really the whole point of getting a new car, isn’t it?

You can use your phone as a digital key, there are digital side mirrors, and while you charge you can sit and watch videos off the internet on the dual 12.3-inch touchscreens that span the dashboard.

Or if you don’t fancy watching Netflix you can turn those same screens into a virtual aquarium with little fishies darting around, tap the screen to feed the little blighters. You can even plug in external devices through the HDMI input and three-pin plug, like a DVD player or games console. It’s bonkers.

We haven’t even mentioned the single-pedal driving and London taxi-aping tight turning circle that make the e a fine companion around town. Or the cute styling that bring a smile to the face of even the most miserly passers-by. 

Alright, so you’d need to go into owning Honda’s first serious electric vehicle with your eyes open. It isn’t particularly cheap, with prices starting at £34k and rising to around £37k. Nor does it go particularly far on a tank of alternating current – its official WLTP figure is up to 136 miles, but a touch over 100 miles is a more realistic day-to-day aim. 

But if, and let’s be realistic here, your trips are mostly urban ones and you don’t go very far very often, then the e could be the perfect companion. Is there any better car to be stuck in traffic or sat charging up in?

Check out Top Gear’s Honda e review here