Honda Urban EV: first look ahead of Geneva reveal

Honda has released the first sketch of its city-focused battery-electric future, with the brand's Urban EV prototype to be revealed in full at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

But while the Urban EV might "officially" be a prototype, it's one in name only, with the car due to hit international dealerships later this year, and expected to do so largely unchanged from this production-ready version.

Honda isn't saying much about the Urban EV yet, other than that it has "been developed with a focus on functionality and purpose...with clean, simple and unique design." But the Urban EV Concept shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2017 does provide some helpful hints.

For one, the cute, retro-style design of that concept has barely changed (and that's no bad thing. The four-seat city car - the concept was 100mm shorter than the brand's Jazz - looks far more muscular and athletic, almost like a mini muscle car, than anything Honda has produced in the past), with the same circular headlights and bottom-heavy curves.

And if you look closely at this sketch, you'll see a light glow coming from the dashboard - suggesting the concept's "wrap-around panoramic dashboard screen" has made it through to production, too.

In revealing the concept in 2017, Honda President and CEO Takahiro Hachigo promised the "This is not some vision of the distant future; a production version of this car will be here in Europe in 2019."

And it seems he was telling the truth.

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