Honda Zero first drive: an EV without the baggage

Honda is no stranger to pushing technology boundaries when it comes to powertrains, and the company gave us a brief drive of its new electrified platform, the Honda Zero, which made its debut at CES last year. 

While we only got a short time with an early prototype and details were slim on a lot of the technology, Honda offered a few more details about how it hopes to take the company into a more electrified future, building seven models on the new platform by 2030. 

But the new platform is closer than it seems. The first Honda Zero Series production vehicle, a close relative of the Saloon sedan, will debut at CES 2025. 

We got a total of three laps of a closed course at Honda Global in Tochigi, Japan, which included a short acceleration run, a rising hairpin, and a series of slaloms. There were two prototype vehicles, a Honda Civic and a Honda CR-V, riding atop the Honda Zero platform, including a new battery pack and electric motors.

Beyond that, nothing we experienced in the prototypes will carry over directly into the production models, so it’s impossible to give more than just an initial impression. We were only permitted to drive the prototype once; I drove the CR-V variant.

What I can say from the limited time and interaction is that the platform feels noticeably lighter than the Honda Prologue, which Honda jointly developed with GM just before scrapping their plans to develop a full lineup of affordable EVs in late 2023. The Honda Prologue is underpinned by GM’s Ultium EV architecture and closely related to the Chevy Blazer EV, which also feels significantly heavier than the prototype Honda we drove in Japan.

The new Honda Zero platform feels similar to other EV platforms on the market in terms of acceleration and handling. Because the weight is low in the floor, the prototype CR-V cornered quickly and flat as you approached the limit. The powertrain is quick and responsive, and on the short, front straight that the engineers set up for our test laps, I hit 110km (just shy of 70mph) in a relatively short distance. 

I own a 2022 Honda CR-V Hybrid, and the prototype CR-V on the Honda Zero platform was a lot more tossable without a lot of body roll. It handled the quick slalom well, too. 

Unfortunately, Honda was really light on details about its new “Thin, Light and Wise,” platform. The company claims that the battery pack will be “6 percent thinner… compared to the standard component/function installed in currently available production EVs.” How light, heavy, or thick that translates to is anyone’s guess. 

Honda is equally cagey about the power output and capacity of the new battery, developed in partnership with LG Energy Solution, which will underpin the future Honda Zero models. Honda executives said the new battery platform would be designed for an EPA-rated range of 300 miles but declined to say anything more about how they’ll achieve that range. The company also said that it is aiming to limit battery degradation to less than 10 percent after 10 years of use, by leveraging the learnings it’s gained from driving data from 5 million Honda vehicles, most of which were hybrid vehicles. 

Honda leveraged a lot of that hybrid vehicle experience to create new, more compact inverters and motors for the Zero platform, which contributes to its lightness. This technology, which Honda refers to as its e-Axle, gets a 40 percent smaller inverter than that in other commercially available EVs. 

Honda wouldn’t detail any hard numbers or direct competitors they used for comparison, but it did say that there will be two motors offered with various configurations: A 180kW and a 50kW, which can make a combined max of 360kW of power. 

There will be four options for the motor layouts: AWD with two 180kW motors at the front and rear; an AWD version with a 50kW at the front and 180kW at the rear; a RWD with 180kW at the rear; and a shared BEV and hybrid platform with the smaller 50kW motor at the rear. 

The smaller e-Axles are laid out horizontally in the car, and the more compact inverters are right next to the motors, contributing to a lower floor height and more interior space for passengers, a design value that Honda refers to as “Man Maximum, Machine Minimum,” or the “M/M Concept.”

Honda also pioneered some production tools and techniques to offer thinner and lighter components. The company is investing in a total of six, 6,000-ton megacasting machines for battery case production. 

Eventually, the massive machines will be used for body, frame, and rear module sections. Megacasting allows for split casting so that the company can build battery packs for sedans and large SUVs using the same machine. They join the battery case parts using friction stir welding, which both improves the connection of the weld and allows for a lower height for the battery pack. 

The company is also leveraging its own Constant DC Chopping (CDC) technology to join thin and thick materials to keep the frame weight down while still offering high tensile strength for safety. These manufacturing techniques will eventually roll out to the entire Honda line (including ICE vehicles), and Honda says that they will help the entire fleet lighten up by about 20 percent. 

Honda showed off some of its UX software, which still feels very much like it’s in its development stage. These experiences include everything from being able to virtually join a drive taking place elsewhere in the world via VR headset to “autonomous” driving and facial recognition and AI tools. 

We got a glimpse of the VR technology when a fellow journalist put on a headset and virtually joined a drive happening in Yokohama. Honda says that they plan to release the app that enables this feature and get customer feedback sometime before the launch of the upcoming Saloon, though details were sketchy. 

Honda also plans to use features like AI and facial recognition with customers. While companies like Genesis have facial recognition, Honda is pushing the envelope further by leveraging machine learning and AI to determine intent.  

Honda is working on Level 3 automated driver-assistance systems that will allow for eyes-off operation in traffic. The system will rely on lidar and high-definition cameras as well as a blend of Honda’s original AI technology and Helm.ai, a platform geared toward understanding the world the same way a human would.

Honda says that the Saloon, which may get another name when it debuts next year, will be a limited-run, top-line vehicle, but it won’t fall under its premium brand, Acura. 

The production version will be “closely related” to the concept, according to the company. Honda is also partnered with Sony for the latter’s upcoming Afeela EV. Both the Honda Zero Saloon and the Afeela EV will be 2026 models.

Without a lot of concrete details, Honda still has a lot of wiggle room on what the new Saloon will actually offer. At the very least, it will be more than zero.