Last week, CarBuzz dug up nine Honda patent applications with the European Union Intellectual Property Office that could signal a westward expansion of the automaker’s aims. Honda’s been showing conceptual electric vehicles in China over the last 18 months. At Auto Beijing in 2020 we saw the E:Concept two-door crossover. Come the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2021, the E had been shrunk to e for a redesigned, four-door electric crossover called the e:Prototype. Then at Auto Beijing in October 2021, Honda showed five EV concepts for the Chinese market to be sold under a regional sub-brand called e:N; of those five, the first production models were to be called e:NS1 and e:NP1, both looking like remade versions of the HR-V. That’s the long way of setting the table for the EUIPO filings—it’s expected the nine electric vehicle name applications from e:Ny2 to e:Ny9 would potentially become production EVs for Europe. The range of models on the way will sit on a trio of platforms devoted to front-, rear- and all-wheel-drive vehicles.
Honda didn’t include e:Ny1 in the patent applications, which started with e:Ny2. Perhaps the first number was saved for conceptual use, because a few days later, Honda showed Europe an e:Ny1 prototype. Car magazine says it is pronounced “Anyone.” It looks like the HR-V that Honda sells in Europe and Japan now, which itself looks like the e:Prototype Honda revealed in Shanghai last April. Honda Europe execs said it presages a B-segment electric crossover that will “be at the center of Honda’s future product line-up” there, targeting “families looking for their first EV.” That puts it about the size of the Honda Jazz/Fit on which the Euro HR-V is based. The crossover model is expected in 2023, sitting on a stretched version of the Honda e architecture to carry a bigger battery enabling a longer range than the 137 miles possible in the Honda e, as well as “greater space, versatility and, range.” If it cribs from the e:Ns1 and e:NP1 in China, the European EV will fit a 68.8-kWh battery. In China, that pack is good for a 311-mile range.
Next year also sees the market launch of a hybrid, C-segment crossover that will be about the size of the current CR-V. It fills the space that will be abandoned by the new-generation CR-V, which will grow and offer hybrid and PHEV powertrains.
We’ve read that the e represents Honda’s eTechnology, the N stands for new or next. As for platforms, we know the front-driver is called the e:N Architecture F. All the electrified debuts slated for 2023, following new hybrid offerings like the European Civic Hybrid, will “set the course for the next generation of electrified Honda cars,” according to Honda.
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Source: www.autoblog.com