Radical Honda EV saloon is 90% ready for production in 2026

Honda's radical new Saloon concept, which serves to preview a line of revolutionary new EVs dubbed the 0 Series, is 90% ready for production in 2026.

At its unveiling at CES in Las Vegas, bosses confirmed that the final car has been designed, and testing of the production car is now under way at Honda's US headquarters ahead of an expected reveal in 2025.

It will be the first in Honda's new 0 Series electric car line-up. Representing a ground-up overhaul of the Japanese brand's approach to electric car development and majoring on efficiency, engagement, spaciousness and autonomy, the new models will be sold in global markets including Europe, following a launch in the US.

Honda's European boss, Katsuhisa Okuda, said the 0 Series is about "creating outstanding projects from zero, unconstrained by existing assumptions".

With this new line of EVs, Honda is "going back to the starting point of Honda as an auto maker and creating new EVs from zero", hence the 0 Series name.

It showed two concepts previewing this new family at CES in Las Vegas: a rakish, low-slung flagship simply named the Saloon and the larger Space-Hub, a flexibility-focused people-mover that blends elements of SUVs and MPVs. The Space-Hub concept has not been confirmed for production. However, a smaller, similarly conceived SUV is inbound as part of the 0 Series and follows similar principles.

The Saloon, meanwhile, will "90% keep this appearance", confirmed designer Toshinobu Minami, adding that it will lose some of the concept's more outlandish features for production, including the gullwing doors.

The high-definition digital display on the front end could make it to showrooms,  he added, but he said Honda is evaluating "what would be good to display". He added: "We don't want it to be solely for display."

It could also take an actual name, rather than a numerical or alphabetical designation like e:NY1, into production. Minami said: "It's something we are thinking about and having lots of difficulty with."

Departing so radically from the design of current Honda models was all about "starting from zero", said Minami. "We rethought the design from a human-centric viewpoint and this is what we landed on."

Its rakish silhouette stems from Honda's desire for "lower and wider vehicles", said Minami, but it has not been conceived as a dedicated sporting EV to rival the likes of the Porsche Taycan.

"We try to aim for the ultimate functional beauty and we landed on this sporty design. Giving it more interior space while making it sporty at the same time is difficult, but that is what we are pursuing - and of course we do want it to be sporty."

Minami was quick to deny that Honda has taken inspiration from any past models in creating the Saloon concept, with its wedge-shaped silhouette, bluff rear end and pixel-style LED headlights.

He described the design language as being rooted, instead, in creating the "ultimate functional beauty". "We're not particularly aiming for this shape," he said, "but we're trying to create the shape of the function while making it emotional."

While the exterior is described as nearly ready for showrooms, the interior is "more show car", said Minami. The final cockpit design is scheduled to be shown in the near future.

The concepts haven't been designed to preview direct replacements for any existing Honda models, but the production cars they inspire will sit at the heart of Honda's global EV line-up.

As a signal of their revolutionary billing, they wear a reinterpreted version of Honda's H-mark emblem, which will be rolled out to production cars from 2026.

"In developing the Honda 0 Series, the development team went back to the starting point of Honda and reconsidered what kind of EVs Honda wants to create in the coming era," the company said.

"Honda will strive to create new value for EVs by transcending the constraints of being thick and heavy due to the large and heavy battery necessary to secure long enough range, as well as a large and heavy body and platform necessary to accommodate such batteries."