The kei car may be a Japan-only affair, but these little runabouts have fans worldwide. It’s the antidote to ever growing cars, proving that you don’t need a massive SUV all the time for the daily drive. These cars may be tiny, but they make the most out of their small footprint.
In Japan, it’s the Honda N-Box that reigns supreme. Not only is it the country’s best-selling kei car, it’s also the top-selling car in the land. Heck, in 2022, Honda sold 202,197 units of its popular kei car, beating out the Toyota Yaris (168,557 units), the Corolla (131,548 units), and the Nissan Note.
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Now, there’s a new generation of the N-Box, and it has a lot to live up to if it wants to retain the crown of Japan’s best-selling car.
It may look similar to the outgoing model, but Honda says it's been comprehensively redesigned inside and out. The 2024 N-Box retains its upright and boxy design, but there’s a fresher front end that further emphasizes its angular exterior.
Two versions of the kei car are available, namely the standard model and the sportier Custom. The latter comes with a unique grille, more aggressive bumpers, model-specific alloy wheels, and different light clusters.
Inside, it’s as space efficient as they come. But aside from eking out more room in the tiny body, the all-new Honda N-Box follows the company’s new interior design philosophy of ‘Man Maximum, Machine Minimum’. The result is a dashboard that has even more cubbies and storage bins than before, all while adapting a more ‘organic’ look.
These cars may be small but they’re far from basic. Honda Sensing and Honda Connect are fitted to the N-Box, so you get big car features in this tiny package. Power sliding doors are also available, and so is a multi-function smart key. And while those huge windows should provide excellent visibility, Honda even added 360-degree view cameras for good measure.
Moving on to powertrain, the 2024 N-Box has two options. The first is a three-cylinder, 660cc engine and a turbocharged version of the same three-pot mill. Without a turbocharger, the N-Box musters 57hp and 65Nm of torque while the boosted version produces 63hp and 104Nm of torque. Both shift with a CVT and even available with all-wheel drive.
Curious about the price? Well, it ranges from ¥1,648,900 for the most basic (but still well-equipped) model, all the way to ¥2,362,800 for the range-topping model with all-wheel drive. In local currency, that’s a price spread of around P630,000 to P903,000.
Not bad, we say.
