The trends towards battery-driven vehicles packaged within urban-friendly dimensions hasgiven Honda the opportunity to channel its compact car legacy.

At this year’s Geneva auto show the Japanese brand will show its Urban EV configuration which will be very close to final production and to tease us, they’ve released a POV view of the cabin.

Blending digitisation with traditional materials and design simplicity, it’s a happy departure from the aged gaming graphic infotainment interfaces Honda’s delivered in its production vehicles until recently. The Urban EV’s cabin is dominated by a full-width digital dash, comprising five individual screens.

Three of these screens relay driving information, infotainment functions and the Urban EV’s battery status amongst them. Flanking these three anchor digital displays, are two screens at the extremities of the Urban EV’s cabin architecture, which provide a live stream side-mirror function, replacing conventional externally mounted side mirrors.

This swathe of digitisation has compelled Honda’s designers to be clever in planning the tangible touchpoints for Urban EV. The steering wheel is a thin twin-spoke helm, to ensure as much of the digital screen dash remains visible, no matter what the steering angle is.

Automotive designers have learned that traditional analogue controls can be superior to a pure digital touchscreen interface for certain functions, such as climate control and infotainment volume adjustment. As such, Honda’s added some dials to the centre stack, to ensure a near perfect blend of infotainment streaming via a digital screen, and intuitive adjustability by reach-and-touch. Digital media pairing options will be USB, Bluetooth and even HDMI.

And that Japanese teak inlay which underscores the full-width dash? It’s perfect 1970s audiophile design, reinterpreted for an automotive application.

The Honda Urban EV concept revealed back in 2017.

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