this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2026
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And, a recent tour of one of the Asian powerhouse's vehicle plants has proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt, at least to Honda President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe.

"We have no chance against this," Mibe said upon a visit to a Shanghai parts factory, commenting on its seamless automation across all levels of production. Logistics, procurement and all aspects of the process were so automated, in fact, that he did not spot a single human worker on the supplier's floor.

Ford executives saying even three years ago that China was way ahead of the game

Toyota's CEO has likewise said regarding not just his company, but the industry in general, "unless things change, we will not survive"

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[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 67 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I've been wanting Honda to make an affordable all-electric car for years. Based on how BYD is selling, I'm guessing I'm not the only one.

Instead they keep making bigger and bigger, gas-guzzling vehicles, with bells and whistles we don't need, saying that's what sells and they can't make an electric vehicle they're happy with.

Well, too bad. It seems I've bought my last Honda, sadly, because my next vehicle will not burn gasoline.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 23 points 4 days ago (3 children)

On the same boat and yes it's depressing. It's also depressing that nobody seems to be thinking about all electric small cars, or even normal width cars, at least where I live. Teslas and BYDs here are about as wide as buses. I can only dream of Honda or Toyota making an electric vehicle no wider than 70% of the lanes they're supposed to drive on.

[–] Wfh@lemmy.zip 26 points 4 days ago (2 children)

They did. The Honda e was the perfect tiny EV, except for its massive price tag and small-ish range. And of course, in classic Honda fashion, as a promising but flawed attempt didn't succeed immediately, they promptly abandoned the segment instead of capitalizing on acquired knowledge, battery technology advances and price drops. Given how successful the Renault 5 is, I'm pretty sure a 2nd gen e at half the price would have been a massive success.

Of course, being Honda, they changed their mind and came back with a significantly worse SUV.

[–] Humanius@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

They would probably not have managed to slash the price in half with one generation.

The original Honda E was € 35.330 in 2020, which was a difficult sell given the small 170km range.
Half price would mean an electric car for ~€ 18.000

Looking at other Western manufacturers (e.g. Peugeot, Citroen, Volkswagen, Dacia) for a fair comparison, that is a stretch even today. Most EVs don't really go below 20k, and 25k seems to be the current range for affordable EVs.

The issue is largely the cost of the battery. That cost has come down over the years, but not to the extent that Honda could have suddenly slashed the price of their EV in half.

Edit: That is not to say Honda shouldn't have kept releasing more EVs.

I'm just pointing out that they probably would follow the same path as the other Western automakers that have pretty consistently been releasing EVs over the past decade orso.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

The Honda e was the perfect tiny EV, except for its massive price tag and small-ish range.

So it wasn't even close to being perfect was it? Those are like the two most important aspects

[–] ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

No perfect in a cute little way

[–] allywilson@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Renault seem to offer quite a few these days that are fairly small.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 4 days ago

Renaults are rare in Australia (and for some reason also disliked by aussies in general ). I would say the most popular brands are BYD, Tesla, Honda, Toyota, Kia, and Hyundai, easily more than half the cars you see in circulation today. I can probably count with my fingers the amount of times I've seen a Renault while driving.

[–] thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

nobody seems to be thinking about all electric small cars, or even normal width cars,

Hey ? There's dozens, if not hundreds of them, Chinese, European, Korean...

at least where I live

Oh. In the USA huh ? Damn, shame about your govt blocking them all. Maybe you'll change things up at the mid terms, good luck with it.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

At a 30 sec glance at your history and based on your reference to Renaults in Oz then first question - WTF - it's 3am over there, go to bed !

Then 2nd question, what exactly are you lacking in the way of small car options ? Another 30 sec dig suggests Oz has any number of small BEVs available all of the usual culprits from China, Korea and Europe are available (as they are in most countries, Canada being 1 exception for a few more months, and obviously the US).

https://www.cars24.com.au/car-guide/best-selling-bev-models-australia-2025/

Nissan Leaf, MG4 and BMW iX1 are not exactly F150s - they're all reasonable sized hatches.

Yes there are plenty of people driving large cars in Oz (I'm from there originally) and they're now feeling the pain of the fuel prices, it will shape their behaviour, particularly the city folk driving Ford Rangers etc without ever taking them off road.

If I've guessed wrong on the country whatever. There's very few countries outside of North America that don't have small and medium BEVs easily available

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 3 days ago

You got the country right. What's your idea of a small car? When was the last time you drove in Australia? How large are the lanes where you live?

Of the cars you listed (or better said the website listed) only the Nissan Leaf is under 1800 mm width ( 1780 mm ). With a length of 4490 mm it's not exactly a small car though, but I'll grant you it's within an acceptable size range for a vehicle. I haven't seen many around tbh. The MG zs EV follows closely at 1809 x 4323, acceptable sizes but not small.

The Tesla T3, TY (you see these two a lot), Kia EV5, and BMW ix1 are well above 1900mm width. The T3, by far the most popular, is exactly 1933mm W x 4720cm L, the TY only 3cm longer. Hardly, hardly what I'd call a small car.

The other models listed are all above 1800cm width, and their lengths are over 4200 mm.

Let's compare these sizes against popular PICKUP models. Ford Ranger: 1910 mm x 5225, Volkswagen Amarok: 1910x 5350, Mitsubishi Triton 1815x5305, BYD Shark3 1994x 5195, Nissan Navara 1850 x 5120.

TESLAS ARE WIDER THAN PICKUPS. Why??? Most other EVs have comparable widths to those of a pickup. Is that small?

Examples of actually small cars: Honda Jazz 1694mm x 3996, Toyota Yaris 1710x 3940, Suzuki Swift 1735x 3840, Nissan Micra 1665x 3780, Fiat Mini Cooper 1744 x 3876. These are relatively recent models. If you look for older ones, before 2020, you'll find even more under 1600mm. Before the 2000s, you get cars even narrower than that.

New roads might take the current average car sizes into account, but nobody is broadening already existing streets.

[–] Prathas@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What will be your next vehicle then?

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I honestly don't know. Probably BYD, based on how things are going...

Maybe the Honda Prologue, which I only just found out about. But I'll keep driving my gas guzzler Honda for a while, since ei don't drive it a lot so it will last a long time.

But really my point is that they've had a lot of chances to get ahead of this and they keep sticking to gas and hydrogen and not moving forward on electric.

[–] Prathas@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

Oh, I totally agree; I was just wondering. I really love the look of the Hyundai Casper but I think a nice, solid sodium-battery vehicle with great reviews would be amazing...

[–] KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The new Honda Super-N looks pretty small and is way better value than the Honda E was.

I don't need a car, but if I did that would be what I'd get.