Author: Zhao Yi

If you walk from the central circular area to the inside of Pavilion 2.1 at the 5th China International Import Expo, the first booth you’ll see is Honda’s, which gives an impressive first impression.

To highlight their commitment to comprehensive electrification, Honda has even put “e:N” on the main logo position, which elevates the importance of this sub-brand to an unparalleled level.

The booth is primarily black with a large amount of materials that have a mirror effect. When you are facing the Honda booth, I believe that technology and futurism are the two most frequently used Chinese adjectives that can describe the booth’s atmosphere.

Thanks to their clever design, your visual center will be unconsciously guided to the center of the booth at Honda’s booth, which is the centerpiece of the 5th CIIE, the e:N2 Concept.

Before talking more about this car, let’s watch the video below to understand it first:

In the e:N brand, “e” represents energy and electric, while “N” represents new and next. The combination of the two represents that the e:N brand will bring a unique and attractive new electric driving experience.

This is what Honda planned, and this is what they did.

From 2020, I have had the opportunity to encounter Honda’s concept cars through various auto shows, including the CIIE.

I remember the first pure electric concept car of the Honda SUV e:concept brand, the first Honda model to appear in China, was unveiled at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show, which was led by Honda’s young design team in China.

At that time, Honda hadn’t yet launched its new independent electric brand e:N, but you could already feel Honda’s determination in this direction.

The e:N2 concept car before us was also completed by a young design team in China, indicating that the Chinese design team has always played a key role in the creation of Honda concept cars.

Following up in 2021, I was fortunate enough to witness Honda release three concept cars and two mass-produced models in one breath at the Guangzhou presentation.

Therefore, when I saw the e:N2 Concept, it was both familiar and exciting.

The familiarity lies in Honda’s design, which maintains a strong consistency even in the field of concept cars, emphasizing the three elements of “dynamism, intelligence, and beauty”, with “beauty” not deviating. Users can strongly feel Honda’s aesthetics and design genes in the new era, which really deserves a big thumbs up to the Chinese design team.As the second product concept car of e:N series, it continues the design language of e:N Design. The entire body uses a large amount of flat and simple lines, giving it an extremely strong sense of cutting.

Especially impressive is the pronounced waistline that runs from the front headlights to the tail lights, as well as the sharp and exaggerated visual impact created by the sharp lines of the front and rear headlights.

What excites me even more is that compared to the e:N concept car seen last year, as a model that extends towards mass production, the e:N2 Concept is one step closer to the consumer, and we can actually experience it.

In addition to “beauty”, e:N2 Concept also does the best interpretation in the aspects of “dynamic” and “intelligence” that Honda emphasizes.

“Dynamics” is the crystallization of Honda’s more than 70 years of car-making experience and is the most talked-about aspect among countless Honda fans worldwide. With the advent of the electric age, e:N series products continue Honda’s genes in this aspect.

The e:N2 Concept is equipped with the intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture “e:N Architecture F” exclusively for electric vehicles.

In fact, Honda’s future plans include two types of pure electric architecture: e:N Architecture F, which is used for small cars and front-wheel-drive models, and e:N Architecture W, which is used for large vehicles and is suitable for rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive.

The “exclusive” pure electric platform is the core symbol to measure whether a car manufacturer has the determination to fully electrify. It determines a series of key issues such as the maneuverability, upgradability, richness of product matrix, and compatibility of electronic appliances of an electric vehicle.

Obviously, Honda has prepared well for this. The brand new efficient pure electric architecture will bring strong all-round electric control operation capability, with rapid response, and easy adaptation to various driving environments, such as highways and unpaved roads.“`markdown

At the same time, with more refined and electronic chassis tuning, the driving pleasure of Honda’s “man and car in one, car moves freely” will be elevated to a higher level.

Entering the electric era, Honda fans will be able to feel a brand new but familiar Honda through “driving”.

In addition, if users have the opportunity to enter the e:N2 Concept cockpit, they will be able to experience Honda’s full-stack intelligent control ecological system-e:N OS fused with digital cockpit.

The highlight of this digital cockpit is the connection of “five senses” and the extension of perception, allowing users to perceive through sight, hearing, touch, etc. For example, in terms of vision, there are encircling intelligent light strips and large-size AR-HUD; in terms of touch, there are hidden various buttons and rectangular steering wheel; in terms of hearing, there is more powerful continuous voice interaction ability, as well as the ability to control cabin hardware through voice.

In the cockpit of e:N2 Concept, Honda uses advanced intelligent technology to fully mobilize and extend human perception, and enriches the perceptual interaction experience, making the car a close partner of people.

In addition to taking electrification as a major direction, another grasp of Honda towards the future is intelligence, and Honda SENSING 360 exhibited at this year’s CIIE is its embodiment.

“`As the first manufacturer in the world to integrate L3 technology into mass-produced vehicles, Honda SENSING 360 combines extensive L3 technology expertise with more sensors to perceive the surrounding environment and assist the driver in making optimized decisions and reducing the load.

In dealing with various scenarios, Honda SENSING 360 places particular emphasis on the handling of complex traffic situations at intersections, such as oncoming vehicles, lateral vehicles, and pedestrians crossing, significantly improving the safety of Honda vehicles in these scenarios.

Cooperating with Honda SENSING 360, Honda CONNECT not only provides a better human-machine interaction experience but also enables the assistance of various information perceived by the vehicle to humans, laying a solid foundation for achieving “human-machine co-driving.” What is commendable is that these visions presented at the CIIE Honda booth are not unattainable pipe dreams.

Honda announced that “Safety Super Sensing Honda SENSING 360” will be the first to be equipped with the all-new CR-V and Vezel (BREEZE) models to be launched this winter and will be equipped and applied to all Honda brand models before 2030. Consumers will be able to buy these products gradually after the launch.

Therefore, whether it is electric or intelligent, what Honda exhibited at the booth can be said to be a microcosm of the entire Pavilion 2.1, which can be summed up in one sentence – “dreams come true.” There are dreams represented by e:N2 Concept and reality represented by e:NS1 and electric bike素-MS01.

However, whether it is a dream or reality, it is the answer from automakers represented by Honda, who show us the future of comprehensive electrification and intelligence from various perspectives.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.