Honda's stunning EV-STER 07 | 03 | 2012

THIS IS THE NEW small, pure electric roadster which Honda says “shows the next generation of design language” the company will adopt.

The EV-STER, shwon in Europe for the first time at Geneva, also, according to Honda's creative director Toshinobu Minami, "represents the excitement and thrill we hope to deliver through future products”.

The EV-STER is likely to enter production within two years.

Focusing on low weight and cost, the concept gets a manual cloth hood. The EV-STER will also be offered with the choice of an electric motor, or the 660cc unit that Honda uses in its other current Kei cars.

Kei cars were designed for the Japanese market specifically to comply with the country's tax and insurance regulations, and to bolster transport after WWII.

The modern developments though are aimed at the burgeoning number of young, hip drivers who traditionally 'pimp' their cars.

See more official photos of the Honda EV-STER

Frustratingly for we Scots, this is where the story begins to unravel. To conform to Japanese Kei-car regulations, the vehicle must be a maximum of 3400mm long and 1480mm wide and have an engine of no more than 63bhp, three cylinders and 660cc.

The big problem arises when you start factoring in crash regulations. European crash regs are much higher than in Japan and, because of that, the EV-STER is unlikely to come to Europe, let alone Scotland.

Why? Simple economics. The car would need to be significantly re-engineered to pass the stringent European crash tests.

That, added to the current global economic difficulties, dramatically reduces any hope of it coming to the UK.

But Yoshikazu Kigoshi, general manager for Honda research and design, offered a glimmer of hope.

“I cannot say whether we would bring the EV-STER to Europe," he said. "We are intent on producing more sports cars, but we need to do more research before we can make that decision regards the EV-STER.”

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Jim McGill