Honda Super-One for New Zealand: cool almost-a-kei-car confirmed

David Linklater

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It's a baby EV, but check out the wide-body style.

It's a baby EV, but check out the wide-body style.

  • Super-One EV will be launched in NZ in the second half of 2026.
  • Based on Japanese N-ONe e, but with Boost Mode and wide-body styling.
  • Transmission simulates 7-speeder, with Active Sound Control.

Honda New Zealand has confirmed it will launch the Super-One city EV in the second half of 2026.

Honda Super-One.
No specification details yet, but we're picking 47kW plus the Boost Mode.

The baby hatch was unveiled at last month's Japan Mobility Show and is the production version of the Super EV concept shown earlier this year. It's closely related to the N-One e designed for the Japanese domestic market, but created with export markets in mind.

Case in point: the N-One e conforms to Japan's kei-car regulations, which stipulate cars must be no longer than 3.4m, no wider than 1.48m and produce less than 47kW. Such vehicles quality for lower tax and insurance rates, and owners in large cities do not need to own a parking space (as they do with larger vehicles).

The Super-One is indeed less than 3.4m long, but those flared wheel arches push the width out beyond kei-rules to 1.6m. The Suzuki Jimny is in a similar situation: it's sold in Japan sans the wider plastic wheel arches it wears in NZ, to meet the width restriction.

Honda Super-ONe.
This is about the coolest sort-of-kei-car we've seen for a long time.

Honda has not shared Super-One powertrain details to date, but it's reasonable to expect it has the 30kWh battery, 270km range (WLTP) and 47kW output of the Japanese-market N-One e.

However, the Super-One's ability to push the specification boundaries means it might offer more power.

The protoype version displayed at the Mobility Show featureres Boost Mode, which "increases the power output to enable the power unit to fully unleash its performance potential to realise powerful and sharp acceleration," says Honda.

It's a CVT, but the "simulated 7-speed transmission... reproduces the gearshift feel of a traditional multi-gear transmission and the Active Sound Control system that produces and plays a powerful, virtual engine sound inside the cabin in accordance with driver input through the accelerator and brake pedals.

A similar transmission is used for Prelude hybrid - another new Honda heading for NZ next year.