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Road test review: Honda Jazz e:HEV

Tuesday, 25 May 2021

The Honda Jazz e:HEV has three drive modes, and the petrol engine only actually drives the wheels in one of them.
Honda’s all-new Jazz is packing some serious tech under that conservative skin.
Honda’s all-new Jazz is packing some serious tech under that conservative skin.
The Jazz’s insanely clever and flexible Magic Seat system is back, bringing either a completely flat floor or an extra tall space when needed.
The Jazz’s insanely clever and flexible Magic Seat system is back, bringing either a completely flat floor or an extra tall space when needed.

After the last generation’s foray into more aggressive looks, the latest Honda Jazz reverts to a more conservative form, but packs more versatility and cleverness per millimetre than most of its competitors. And in hybrid Luxe form, more tech than most as well.

The Jazz’s 1.5-litre petrol engine only directly drives the front wheels very occasionally, letting the electric motor do most of the driving duties.
The Jazz’s 1.5-litre petrol engine only directly drives the front wheels very occasionally, letting the electric motor do most of the driving duties.

Wait, are you saying this is a complex, high-tech car that is largely going to be sold to people whose biggest trip in it will probably be to the bowls club?

Okay – yes – the Jazz does have that reputation and – yes – it is deserved. A quick count in you local lawn bowling club carpark will assuredly confirm that. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be a rather remarkably clever, high-tech small car as well, because the Jazz’s cleverest feature is that fact that it simply hides all that clever high-tech stuff away and lets the driver just get on with driving.

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Honda is back on its interior game with the new Jazz, with soft touch, high quality materials in all the important places.
Honda is back on its interior game with the new Jazz, with soft touch, high quality materials in all the important places.

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* Next-gen Honda Jazz headed to New Zealand

* Road test review: Toyota Yaris Cross

While the Jazz is only just bigger than a Yaris and slightly smaller than a Yaris Cross, it utterly destroys the two Toyotas for interior space.
While the Jazz is only just bigger than a Yaris and slightly smaller than a Yaris Cross, it utterly destroys the two Toyotas for interior space.

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While it would be easy to simply say the Luxe e:HEV is a hybrid ‘just like a Toyota Prius’, it would also be quite wrong, because Honda is doing the hybrid thing differently in the Jazz.

The Jazz’s 72kW/131Nm 1.5-litre petrol engine is paired up with an 80kW/253Nm electric motor, which would sound rather exciting if you added them together for a ‘combined’ output, but the e:HEV doesn’t work that way.

The looks may have swerved back into conservatism, but the tech underneath is way more interesting anyway.
The looks may have swerved back into conservatism, but the tech underneath is way more interesting anyway.

The Jazz Luxe’s hybrid system has three distinct drive modes and the drive to the front wheels is pure-electric in two of them. ‘EV Drive’ mode uses the petrol engine as a generator to charge the battery, which then powers the electric motor to drive the wheels (much like a BMW i3 range extender), while ‘Hybrid Drive’ mode sees the petrol engine run directly to a motor-generator which then powers the electric motor, and finally, ‘Engine Drive’ mode simply lets the petrol engine drive the wheels directly (which never happens in EV or Hybrid modes), mostly at higher speeds.

Sounds complicated. How do I know which mode I should put it in?

It does sound complicated, but here’s the thing – you don’t need to know what mode to put it in at any given time, because the Jazz handles it all by itself, and it is utterly seamless. In fact, you aren’t even given a choice of what mode to put it in, as there is no way to even select a drive mode manually.

The Jazz e:HEV mightn’t be quite as economical as a Yaris hybrid, but once it settles on a consumption figure it sticks with it, regardless of how heavy-footed you are.
The Jazz e:HEV mightn’t be quite as economical as a Yaris hybrid, but once it settles on a consumption figure it sticks with it, regardless of how heavy-footed you are.

One of the true joys of the likes of the Toyota Yaris hybrid is slipping it into EV mode and thrashing around town purely on electricity, but there’s none of that in the Jazz, with the little Honda simply firing up its engine whenever it is needed and leaving you out of the decision-making loop entirely.

While this might initially seem frustrating and counter-intuitive, you quickly get very used to leaving all the thinking to the Jazz and just getting on with driving. It will quietly fire up the engine when it needs more juice, with it either sitting there at constant revs or rising and falling in response to demand.

It’s all very quiet and seamless, and even at higher revs, where you might expect it to get a bit CVT-ish, it drops in the odd ‘gear shift’ to keep things civilised. In fact, despite Honda calling it an “e-CVT” the e:HEV’s transmission is a single gear unit that simply locks up at higher speeds to allow the petrol engine to drive the wheels directly.

So it’s not particularly complex then?

Not at all. In fact, using and driving the Jazz is the polar opposite – it is remarkably simple, well-thought-out and extremely intuitive, right from the clever powertrain that does all the thinking for you, through to the superbly laid out and brutally logical interior that is simple and minimalist, but with enough buttons that you never have to go scrolling through touchscreens for the basics.

Honda has absolutely nailed the blend of necessary buttons and touchscreen simplicity here, with a fantastically logical and ergonomically sensible interior layout, with a slick and satisfying touchscreen. It is all packaged into a remarkably high-quality and spacious interior, with every surface you come into regular contact with being soft-touch or pleasantly tactile.

It all presents in a package that is undeniably conservative, yet relentlessly clever and remarkably high quality for the money asked.

So what’s it actually like to drive?

Fantastic. The don’t-set-just-forget nature of the powertrain means you just get in and drive, and the Jazz does rather well at that too.

The e:HEV’s acceleration is charmingly EV-like, which is unsurprising given that the electric motor does most of the driving, but it is often accompanied by a rising in revs from the engine.

While it is all rather quiet and seamless, it does take a while to get used to the muted sound of the engine just doing its thing, although it generally responds like a normal ICE to larger throttle inputs (when the battery is demanding more charge), but once you have your head around that, you can appreciate the Jazz’s delightfully agile and responsive chassis, beautifully judged steering and impressively comfortable ride.

Honda claims the Jazz e:HEV will return a miserly 2.8L/100km, but this is apparently based on a Japanese domestic market test and our real-world driving experience with it saw a higher number – 4.4L/100km to be precise.

While this might seem a poor result, particularly when compared to the Toyota Yaris hybrid’s easily achievable 3.3L/100km claim, two things need to be taken into consideration; firstly, the Honda Jazz is actually more comparable in size, price and consumption to the larger, less frugal (3.8L/100km) Toyota Yaris Cross hybrid.

Secondly, the Jazz also had a remarkable diesel-like ability to simply choose a fuel consumption figure to settle on and then never stray far from it, no matter how hard you drive it.

That 4.4 result came after a few hundred kilometres of mixed urban and motorway running, with an eye on driving sensibly to make the most of the electric propulsion, but not being too precious about it.Y’know; normal driving.

But take it out and thrash it like a rented mule, and it will climb to… about 4.7. On the opposite end of the spectrum; absolutely baby it, and it will drop to about 4.0, but that 700ml per litre or so of fuel is the range you will always be playing in, regardless of how you drive it.

Any other cars I should consider?

The Jazz essentially sits pretty much between the Toyota Yaris hybrid and Yaris Cross hybrid in terms of size and price, with the Jazz utterly crushing both Toyotas for rear seat legroom and rear versatility in general, thanks to its ridiculously flexible and clever “Magic Seat” arrangement that has been a fixture of the Jazz since forever.

Other small cars like the Volkswagen Polo, Mazda2 and Skoda Fabia fit in the broader definition of competitor for the Jazz, but given the Jazz has more interior space than most small SUVs, let along the small hatches, it is almost in a segment of own in this regard.