Honda e vs VW e-Up!

The Honda e costs £7,520 more than the VW e-Up!. For that premium it adds 39 kW more power and a 2.9s quicker 0-62mph time. The VW e-Up! is not just cheaper - it also offers 79 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the VW e-Up! comes out ahead overall.

The VW e-Up! is £7,520 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £160 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the VW e-Up! comes out roughly £7,600 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 115 miles for the Honda e and 116 miles for the VW e-Up! - effectively matched, and both well below their WLTP figures because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 31 minutes in the Honda e and 49 in the VW e-Up!, so the Honda e loses less time at each stop.

The VW e-Up! is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 107 mm narrower than the Honda e. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 755 mm of total clearance for the VW e-Up! and about 648 mm of total clearance for the Honda e. The Honda e also turns in a 1.2 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Honda e and 84% for the VW e-Up!. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.