Official pictures of Honda's new car, e:NS2 released in China

Recently, the official pictures of the Chinese Dongfeng Honda e:NS2 model were released, and it was also announced by the official that the e:NS2 has a Chinese name, but the specific name has not yet been announced. Seeing the increasing sales of electric cars in China, is Honda also going to join the battle? (Honda has two joint venture companies in China, one is GAC Honda, and the other is Dongfeng Honda).

China's Dongfeng Honda e:NS2 is the second pure electric model launched by the Honda e:N brand after the e:NS1. It is based on Honda's pure electric architecture "e:N Architecture F". This car and the local GAC Honda e:NP2 are sibling models, but from the models unveiled at the previous Guangzhou Auto Show in China, the two cars have obvious differences in exterior design. According to the plan, the e:NS2 model will officially go on sale during the 2024 Beijing Auto Show.

In terms of exterior, the Dongfeng Honda e:NS2 adopts a blade shape and sharp streamlined design. The sharp and straight waistline of the body extends from the front of the car to the rear, and the rear tail door adopts a hatchback design. To be specific, the front face of the new car adopts full-width daytime running lights and a boomerang lamp group design, the brand LOGO supports lighting, and the overall recognition is extremely high while also having youthful attributes.

On the side of the car, the rear part of the new car has a more sporty hatchback design. In addition, the area of the door and side window looks more like a crossover model. In addition, the new car will also be equipped with hidden door handles and low-resistance wheel rims. In terms of size, the length, width, and height of the new car are 4788/1838/1570mm respectively, and the wheelbase is 2735mm, positioned as a pure-electric versatile coupe. In terms of the rear part, the design of the new car's taillights echoes that of the front lamp group. And it adopts the popular through design with a fold-line shape on both sides and the rear bumper also echoes the front bumper.

In terms of interior, the new car adopts a minimalist design style, with a pass-through design for the intelligent front row. The new car does not equip the touch-based shifting mechanism of the concept car but instead adopts the traditional button-based shifting mechanism. In addition, the car is equipped with a large-size HUD, and is equipped with the new "Intelligent Navigation Honda CONNECT 4.0" and safety driving aid system "Safety Super Sense Honda SENSING 360". In terms of power, the new car will be equipped with a ternary lithium-ion battery, with a battery capacity of 68.8kWh, and the motor can output a maximum power of 150kW.

In April 2022, Honda China launched two pure electric models under the e:N brand — e:NP1/e:NS1, which are also brother models. The former is produced by Dongfeng Honda and the latter by GAC Honda. They are positioned as B-segment pure electric SUVs. However, sales of both models have been consistently low since they went on the market. Retail data shows that from January to March, the cumulative sales of Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 were 1759 units, and that of GAC Honda e:NP1 were 150 units.

To reverse the decline, Dongfeng Honda will also launch the Lingxi L model in September. The "Lingxi" brand was launched in September 2023. It is a new energy vehicle brand under Dongfeng Honda and the first new energy brand launched by Japanese brands in the Chinese market specifically for the Chinese market. It is known that the "Lingxi" brand has a new logo, and its products will be produced on a new pure electric platform. The product positioning, target customers, market pricing, etc. are all significantly different from the e:NS pure electric brand.

Among them, "Lingxi L" will be the first model of this brand, positioned as a Sedan car. Back then, Dongfeng Honda said that the car was “led by young people and designed for young people”, which was the first electric concept car designed by Dongfeng Honda's young team.