My Fit EV driving impressions:
This car is FUN to drive in Sport mode. Steering is tight and responsive with very good feel. Not BMW feel, but darn good feel. You do sit higher in the car than in a normal sport sedan because you’re sitting above the battery pack, but in Sport mode, the car is so responsive that you forget that you’re sitting up a bit higher. On a handling course, in Normal mode, the car feels pretty similar to the LEAF, but without as much body roll and more planted on its tires. Throttle response in this mode coming out of turns is a bit quicker than the LEAF, which has a bit of lag at speeds around 15 or 20 mph. But in Sport mode, the Fit EV really storms on a short handling course. The extra 23% of power really makes itself felt and throttle response at moderate speeds is immediate, feeling like you are “on the cam” in an ICE car. Sport mode makes 123 hp versus Fit EV’s Normal 100 hp and LEAF’s 107 hp. On the parking lot tracks, I felt like I could feel the precision of the independent rear suspension, and it added to the good handling as compared with the LEAF’s torsion beam rear axle. This also applies to the handling on Pasadena’s Colorado Bridge, which is a nice bit of twisty flat road.
On city streets in Sport mode, I really found myself grinning as the car zipped up to speed and took a tight set on the curves. It really feels sporty. For comparison with a couple of other sporty EVs, I’ll compare it with the BMW ActiveE and the MiniE. I’ve driven those two cars exactly once each, but they left lasting impressions.
The ActiveE is a true sports sedan that has steering feel and handling that only BMW seems to be able to get exactly right. The BMW also has brake regen that is strong enough that you can drive the car with only one foot, able to bring the car to a full stop without touching the brake pedal. The BMW also lacks “creep” at a stop. The Fit EV is certainly no BMW as far as handling feel and quick turn-in are concerned. Acceleration in the Fit EV in Sport mode feels equal to or better than the ActiveE, maybe around 8 seconds for 0 to 60 mph. We’ll see about that when magazines do instrumented tests. Regenerative braking, even in “B” mode, is nowhere near as strong as in the BMW. In “B” mode, the Fit EV’s brake regen feels slightly stronger than the LEAF’s braking in Eco mode. However, when going down hill and braking, the Fit EV actually increases brake regen and it appeared that one could actually bring the car to a stop without touching the brakes.
The most memorable thing about driving the MiniE was the crazy strong acceleration in the mid speed range. You could drive along at 30 to 35 mph and then punch it and the MiniE would absolutely scream forward without falling off for a l-o-n-g time. Talk about an EV grin! The Fit EV, unfortunately, doesn’t give you nearly that rush of acceleration (or adrenalin), but in Sport mode, it is hands down the best accelerating EV that I’ve driven besides the MiniE. (Note: I have purposely avoided driving a Tesla Roadster, knowing that no EV that I would actually consider owning would ever compare with the rush.). The MiniE featured some pretty strong torque steer, and happily, the Honda doesn’t suffer from that ill. Handling and ride in most Minis is of the go-kart variety. Take that in both the best and worst sense of the words. The Fit EV doesn’t quite handle as tightly as a go-kart, but the ride is much more compliant than the Mini’s, and that spells relaxed cruising that was less possible in the Mini.
Overall, I found the Fit EV really fun to drive. I finished my afternoon with the feeling that if I had had the Honda and the LEAF to choose from last spring, I would likely have chosen the Honda. It feels more like the kind of cars I’ve chosen in the past, not full-on sports cars, but really capable handling cars with enough torque and zip to get some fun out of the suspension. The Fit EV is smaller inside than the LEAF and narrower, and I have doubts that we could fit a baby seat plus two normal sized adults in the back seat comfortably. So the Fit EV would have been slightly less useful for quick family trips out to dinner or the beach. The extra 10% of EPA driving range compared with the LEAF would be appreciated, and 118 MPGe, the highest energy efficiency of any comparable car, is not to be sneezed at. Remember, though, that that level of efficiency wasn’t achieved in Sport mode, which Honda tells us provides about ten percent less range than Normal mode. The Fit EV’s instruments are less quantitative than the LEAF’s, giving only approximate readings of SOC, charge and discharge, and the energy loads of ancillary systems. I’d miss the more quantitative readings, but not very much. And the lack of a battery temperature gauge, replaced by only an idiot light, is a really glaring omission. The Fit EV does display mi/kWh efficiency, and the 100 or so SOC “bars” are much less granular than the 12 bars that the LEAF displays. The hand held fob does actually show SOC percent numerically, so I’d have to say that the Fit EV wins on that count, as long as those displays turn out to be accurate. EDIT: Also note that the Fit EV lacks any gauge showing battery charge CAPACITY. The LEAF shows that as the 12 bar gauge to the far right side of the distance to empty ("GOM"). So a Fit EV driver would not know if charging capacity were reduced, except by noticing diminished driving range or reduced kWh consumption at the charge point.
To me, the Fit EV felt like a complete and ready for prime-time EV, not a compliance car or a stopgap, and certainly not a dodgy prelude to a production car, like many of the early adopters are finding who are driving the BMW ActiveE.