Automakers love to taunt us with shadowy, silhouetted images of new vehicles. Last week Toyota gave us a coal-black image of the next Tacoma and now Honda is using the same recipe to tease two new EVs developed for the Chinese market.
Unlike Toyota, Honda does at least identify the cars in question, telling us that they’re prototypes for its new e:N series of electric vehicles, but beyond that there’s not a whole lot to go on in terms of hard facts, meaning we might have to wait until the Shanghai Auto Show in April to find out more.
But looking at the single image we can see that both vehicles are crossovers with sloping liftback tails, and they appear to be almost identical in size. In fact, although you can just make out the different front-end treatments on each, plus a hint of two bespoke rear bumper designs, the identical rooflines suggests they’re the same car underneath.
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Their size suggests these electric vehicles are big brothers to the e:NS1 and e:NP1 crossovers, developed by Dongfeng Honda and GAC Honda and introduced last year. Those smaller EVs are almost identical takes on the same vehicle, but while it’s very difficult to make out, even when looking at a lightened image, the vehicles in this teaser seem to be more different from one another in terms of design.
The car on the right appears to have conventional headlamps like the ones on the e:NS1 and e:NP1, but the car on the left shows a hint of the angular boomerang-shaped DRLs first seen on last November’s e:N2 Concept.
Honda claimed at the time that the e:N2 Concept’s styling was pointing to a future design direction for production cars, but it wasn’t the first time we’d laid eyes on the sharp creases and distinctive DRLs. Back in 2021 the firm showed the e:NP1 and e:NS1 alongside the more radical e:N Coupe Concept, e:N SUV Concept, and e:N GT Concept.
