Fit-ness, Eco Style, Electric à la Mode, Geeky Eco Exotic http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2013-honda-fit-ev-test-review [images] 2013 Honda Fit EV BY RON SESSIONS May 2013
[images http://media.caranddriver.com/images/12q4/477954/2013-honda-fit-ev-test-review-car-and-driver-photo-484804-s-429x262.jpg 2013 Honda Fit EV http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/51/2013-fit-ev-inline-01-photo-514528-s-original.jpg http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/51/2013-fit-ev-inline-02-photo-514530-s-original.jpg http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/51/2013-fit-ev-inline-03-photo-514532-s-original.jpg http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/51/2013-fit-ev-inline-04-photo-514533-s-original.jpg http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/51/2013-fit-ev-inline-05-photo-514534-s-original.jpg http://www.caranddriver.com/photo-gallery/2013-honda-fit-ev-test-review Photo Gallery ] More efficient, not as carefree TESTED We’re quite the fanboys for Honda’s Fit. It’s won comparo after comparo, and it’s been named to our 10Best list every year since 2007. Why? It rations fossil fuel with some of the best in the subcompact class while displaying the ability to swallow people and gear like a Shriner car ingurgitates circus clowns. But best of all, it does all those practical things while being truly fun to drive. What’s a ZEV? Last fall, the electric version of the Fit became available for lease in California and Oregon. This spring, Fit EVs started trickling into metropolitan markets in five East Coast states: New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The Fit EV is a zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV), according to the California Air Resources Board, which has essentially mandated that automakers selling more than 10,000 vehicles a year in that state must offer ZEVs for sale as a small percentage of their fleet. To be in compliance, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and the Detroit Three are now offering electric cars. Honda’s is a gasoline-free small car with the same dimensions, versatility, and outward vision as the conventional Fit. Okay, almost the same versatility, because the Fit EV’s 20-kilowatt lithium-ion battery pack steals enough space that Honda can’t use the Fit’s typical “Magic” rear seats, although the ones the EV does have still fold forward. Nevertheless, this remains an incredibly roomy and practical car considering its tiny footprint. Fit-ness, Eco Style The electric Fit retains the spunky good looks of its fossil-fueled frater, but also adds some aero enhancements. The grille is more blocked out and the front fascia is deeper, with a splitter to move air more around the sides and less underneath. The side sills and rear fascia also get the ground-effect treatment, while a rear spoiler extends rearward from the roof. A big, flat belly pan lines the car’s underbelly. Inside, the Fit EV has the same supportive seats, agreeable ergonomics, and great outward visibility of the gas version. Four adults will be very comfortable. There is tons of stash space. The standard voice-activated navigation is pre-programmed to display public charging stations, and driving range is estimated in real time and displayed as a concentric circle around the car’s current location; the effect is like a moving blip on a radar screen. It can display traffic information and even facilitate calls to roadside assistance. Other EV-specific touches include an instrument-panel information display that details current energy use, and, among other gizmos, gives the driver an Eco score to brag about or work on improving. Juxtaposed with the electronica is a super-large analog “gas gauge” for battery charge level. The design is reminiscent of the gauges in 1950s dream kitchens and 1960s American cars, with a huge 180-degree sweep, and many of our staffers find it preferable to tree leaves, frolicking dolphins, or happy faces. And it’s just plain weird starting an electric car by rotating a metal key in a lock cylinder. If any product deserves pushbutton start/stop, it’s an EV. The Horizontal Challenge—Electric à la Mode For the most part, the Fit EV retains the nimble character of the gas Fit, but you can feel the extra mass of the lithium-ion batteries, 92-kilowatt electric motor, and associated electrics. This, along with the multilink rear suspension exclusive to the Fit EV, actually calms the ride frequencies in much the same way as tossing 750 pounds of mulch into the bed of a half-ton pickup helps tame its more abrupt vertical motions. Thanks to the instant torque of electric motors, the added poundage isn’t really apparent under acceleration. But, as with range, acceleration is also variable, depending on what drive mode you’ve selected. The Fit EV has three drive modes: Normal, Econ, and Sport. Adapted from the CR-Z hybrid, these are accessed by a bank of dash-mounted buttons to the left of the steering wheel and have a direct effect on performance and range. In Normal mode, the default at startup, electric motor output is limited to 101 horsepower (75 kW), but the accelerator map is linear. Selecting Econ reduces motor output to 63 horsepower (47 kW) unless the accelerator is floored, in which case power is momentarily restored to 101 horsepower. Here, accelerator progression ramps up more slowly—so slowly, in fact, that we had to keep the right pedal stuffed pretty hard just to keep up with freeway traffic. Also, Econ mode limits A/C compressor and fan speed to the extent that the car had difficulty keeping interior temperatures anywhere close to the selected 72-degree setting on a sunny (and sweaty) day. Sport mode is the least green of the three, but performance is more in keeping with the fun-to-drive character of the gas Fit. The go pedal is more responsive and the motor’s maximum of 123 horsepower (92 kW) is accessible. Honda says it’s like going half-throttle in a 3.0-liter V-6, and we concur. Give Me a Brake Yet another way to affect the performance of the Fit EV is by placing the transmission selector in the B (brake) position. Due to increased regenerative braking in this setting, the car slows down the moment the driver lifts off the accelerator, substantially reducing the amount of brake-pedal pressure needed to bring the Fit to a complete halt. It’s akin to putting the shift lever of a conventional automatic-transmission car in Low. Get on the binders and the car does its best to blend the regenerative braking provided by the electric motor and the mechanical retardation of the electro-hydraulic brakes at each wheel. Although top-of-pedal response is immediate, the quality of that response fails to match the organic toe-tap control of the gas Fit. No two pedal pushes ever seem to elicit the exact same response, and modulation feels more digital than anything, akin to pecking at the up or down arrows on a keyboard rather than confidently willing the EV to a smooth halt. Another minor annoyance: As with the Chevy Volt, the Fit EV’s brake pedal drops precipitously about halfway to the floor when the car is first started. In testing, the Fit EV’s stopping performance from 70 mph was not impressive, either. At 199 feet, it took 15 feet longer to stop than the last gas Fit we tested, nine more than the Leaf and four more than the Focus BEV. Numb and Numb-er Two qualities we love best about the gas-version Honda Fit are its communicative, nicely weighted steering and the nimble way it turns any road into a fun one. But the Fit EV’s steering feels like, well nothing, as it’s overboosted, slower to react, and a bit disconnected from the tire patch. Although the EV’s low-rolling-resistance tires are upsized to 185/65-15s to handle the extra weight of the batteries, the fronts give up grip quickly in the turns. By the way, the Fit EV battery displaces the spare tire, so drivers are left to deal with flats with a goop can, an air compressor, or a credit card instead. On the highway, the thrum of the gas Fit’s engine is replaced by an eerie quiet, the only sounds being the whine of the electric motor, wind rushing around the A-pillars, and tire noise, the latter especially from the open cargo area of the hatchback. Provided the higher-output Sport mode is selected, the Fit EV’s acceleration is actually in the hunt with conventional, gas-powered subcompacts—just 0.3 second slower 0–60 than the 1.5-liter four-cylinder Fit and 0.2 second more slothful in the quarter. The story gets even better when compared to other small EVs, the Fit EV being 1.3 second quicker to 60 than the Nissan Leaf and 1.6 more fleet of foot than Ford’s Focus BEV. But the Fit EV’s Sport mode uses more juice, which isn’t the right mode for anyone who is an uncomfortable distance from the nearest charge port. Dial the Fit EV back to Normal mode and its acceleration advantage over the Leaf and Focus BEV pretty much disappears. The Lonely Ranger—Have Charge Cord, Will Travel With a gas Fit, you can fill it up, say, once a week and go blithely wherever you want, whenever you want, until it’s time to visit the gas station again about 300 miles down the road. Choosing a Fit EV, you craftily avoid gas stations, but now become much more involved in the car’s energy management. The Fit EV’s range with its 20-kW battery is EPA rated at 82 miles. But, as with all electrics, that range depends on ambient temperature, traffic conditions, speed limits, type and elevation of terrain, and whether or not you use the headlights or now-electric-powered heater, defroster, and air conditioner—stuff a driver of a gas-powered Fit doesn’t have to care about much. Because unless you’re driving in less-than-perfect conditions—warm-ish temps, flat terrain, no need for cabin heating or cooling, a 50-mph secondary-road-like pace, and low-traffic-density driving—the range goes south in a hurry. In 35-to-45-degree temps—in Michigan the weather changes at the drop of a hat—we saw projected ranges of just 40–50 miles with a fully charged battery pack. Think of the Fit EV as possessing the electrical-energy equivalent of a two-gallon gas tank that takes 3 to 15 hours to refill, depending on whether you can recharge using the car’s onboard 6.6-kW charger plugged into a fast 240-volt outlet or a typical home’s slow 120-volt unit in the garage. We got into the habit of plugging in the minute we arrived home. But one evening after a particularly exhausting day at the office, one editor drove the “fully charged” Fit EV the 23 miles it took to get home, pulled in the garage, ate dinner and promptly went to bed. The next morning, realizing his failure to charge up the car overnight, he checked the remaining range, which on a bitterly cold morning was calculating to 28 miles for the 23-mile return trip to the office. A slim margin for sure. The alternatives were driving a personal gas car to the office, working from home while the Fit EV took the better part of a day to recharge on available 120-volt power, or go for it. With a fully charged cell phone, valid AAA card, and a reasonable grasp of the principles of hypermiling, our man inched down the driveway and eased into rush-hour traffic. Estimated range dropped by six miles in the first two traveled, and running out of juice on lightly traveled rural roads was not an option. So our staffer switched to Eco mode (which makes the Fit EV accelerate like a Geo Metro in a headwind), turned off the heat (even though he could see his breath inside), and found a slower-moving semi to nestle up close behind and draft most of the way to the office. He rolled into the C/D lot with seven miles of range remaining. Yep, There’s an App for That And while we had the Fit EV, we wondered if it could be that owning a car is really just an app on your smartphone? The Honda connects to a free app that’s available for both iOS and Android; it provides battery state of charge, driving range, the car’s temperature, and allows you to schedule a charging session, as well as pre-heat or cool the cabin. Provided, of course, that your commute is short enough to spare the precious kilowatts required to operate the climate control. Leasing is the only way to get a Fit EV right now, which helps diffuse the obvious question of whether or not—at its $37,415 price—the Fit EV is worth 2.3 times the price of the gas-sipping, $16,215 base Fit. Knock off $7500 courtesy of the federal credit (as long as it lasts in our sequestered times), and maybe another couple of grand in state or municipal credits, and you’ve ratcheted the Fit EV’s capitalized cost down from Acura TL territory to something priced, say, in four-cylinder TSX territory. Geeky Eco Exotic Or maybe we’re being way too practical here. It may be possible that the Fit EV is one of the world’s geekiest eco-exotics. Exclusive? With just 46 leased in the first three months of 2013, Honda has you covered there. For a price that’s more than double the cost of a conventional Fit Sport, you get a car with less than one-quarter the cruising range, a third less cargo space with the rear seats up, nine percent longer stopping distances, mushier steering, and marginally less grip. The payoff, of course, is fossil-free motoring and planet-saving bragging rights. But you’ll have to say goodbye to gas stations and all of the interesting people you might meet by the hot-dog carousel while you stock up on smokes and Red Bull. You win some, you lose some. 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