Honda Super-N vs Abarth 500e: which baby electric hot hatch is best?

The Story

TopGear reports that Honda Super-N vs Abarth 500e: which baby electric hot hatch is best? — here’s the gist of what’s worth knowing.

There’s a buzz about teeny city cars again, and not because of thrummy three pots. Nope, even the electric ones are making a noise. Published: 08 Oct 2026 External link to Top Gear Magazine Subscription – 3 months for £6You wouldn’t drink tea-flavoured coffee. So why have an EV with a noise that impersonates a petrol car?. If you love cars you surely love engineering honesty. We get it. But. Sound isn’t just an evocation of petrolheadedness.

It gives you an indication of speed and powertrain effort, especially into and through a corner when you wouldn’t be looking down at the speedo. So it’s not just about involvement, but about giving you the ability to drive better, and we’re surely all up for that. Sound generation in a silent electric car, if done well, isn’t just the silliness of a bubblegum-flavour alcopop. So that’s why we’ve brought these two together.

Even if it is in other ways an unfair contest, setting one sporty electric baby hatch against another that’s half as powerful again, and pricier by the same ratio (although just prior to publishing, the Abarth qualified for the £3,750 government Electric Car Grant, cutting it to £27,245). Still, they share a role and attitude, plus simulated – OK OK, fake – engine sounds.

Not just sounds. Honda also has a gearshift mode: there are seven simulated ratios. Higher gears mean less acceleration and regeneration, but greater potential speed; lower ones mean more shove and more ‘engine braking’ (regeneration) but a lower max speed. A little ‘rev counter’ moves in pitch with the sound. Indeed, hit the top speed for a given gear in ‘manual’ mode and you bounce against a ‘rev-limiter’.

The Abarth has a single ‘gear’ which certainly makes it less of a fake, even if it has the disadvantage of diminishing one of the cues of speed, because the rise and fall of ‘engine’ pitch has to cover the car’s whole speed range. So sonically you might be stuck in third, even if accelerationally (that’s a word because we say it is) it behaves like a proper EV and gives you all the shove all the time.

Skip 8 photos in the image carousel and continue readingTurn on Javascript to see all the available pictures.1 / 8. This sound was to an extent crowd-sourced, as Abarth fans were asked to vote on several choices. It sounds like a four-cylinder petrol with a fruity exhaust, because at the time of the survey Abarth fans skewed heavily combustion. The Abarth’s noise comes from a generator mounted externally, under the boot floor where an exhaust back box would be, so it’s audible outside the car.

Honda Super-N isn’t the exact opposite of a G63, but it nearly is. The basic car conforms to Japanese kei city car norms, which constrain the length and width and power, in return for significant tax and parking exemptions. Japanese makers respond with cars that simply fill that notional box.

The Super-N, revised for our market where such rules don’t apply, gains extra power, plus stability through a widened track covered by little arch extensions. None of which stops it looking like a cereal box on a roller skate. On the upside, its toy-like narrowness is a huge aid in aiming down city streets and country lanes. Suddenly they’re wider.

The box-like package is unfeasibly roomy. Just for four of course, but that aside there’s enough rear legroom – partly because the battery is physically small – and head clearance. The doors are so thin they make you feel a little vulnerable, but they open wide. In the back it has Honda’s uplifting Magic Seats, a great space for tall items, or a pen for a dog. The boot’s tiny, mind. You’ve got narrow but clinching seats, cheerily trimmed, and lots of actual switches including a full set for climate. You can opt for a diddy fake tacho in the cluster when in the geared modes.

While the Honda is modified from a utility-first design, the Abarth is a derivative of a style-first car, the Fiat 500. Essentially it’s a small coupe, which brings awful privations for the people in the back – their legs, their heads, their vision. In front you sit a bit high, but comfortably in excellent sports seats.

Why It Matters

The Abarth has a single ‘gear’ which certainly makes it less of a fake, even if it has the disadvantage of diminishing one of the cues of speed, because the rise and fall of ‘engine’ pitch has to cover the car’s whole speed range.

CarMotion Daily’s Take

Honda might look like it’ll topple, but it feels well planted and scuttles through a series of curves with delicate flik-flak motions. Watch this space over the coming weeks. Electric momentum is uneven across the industry, and moves like this reshape how buyers compare EV lineups. Range, charging speed, and price still dominate EV shopping — every new entry forces competitors to either match or reposition. Watch for EPA range certifications and DC fast-charge benchmarks once independent tests land. Pricing tiers, software updates, and any regional trim adjustments will tell us how serious the launch intent is.