HELLO! to Honda's 21st century Scamp`

Those familiar with Honda's early cars will recognise the front end and proportions the company has given its EV-N electro baby, set to go on show at Tokyo this month.

The show-only concept model pays obvious homage to the company's clever little N series cars from the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Japan has always had a fascination with toytown motoring. Not just because Japan is a very crowded country -- the citizens also get substantial tax breaks on models with engines displacing less than 660cc.

Honda's N360 and N600 Scamp models were precursors to the so called 'kei-cars' that assumed dominance in the 1980s. Using heavily modified air-cooled two-cylinder bike engines, they were advanced for their time. The N600 particularly was a smart performer with an engine that redlined well over 8000 revs in a body weighing less than 600kg, making it good for close to 150km/h.

Despite its retro aesthetic, however, the EV-N is as 21st century as a car can be. On its roof, for example, is a solar panel to help keep its lithium-ion power pack topped up. Inside are seats with swappable fabrics. And for those places where the going gets too tight even for a car of its tiny dimensions, there's a fold-up 'personal mobility device' in the passenger door.

Like the Segway, that two-wheeled pogo-stick that's been around in the US for a decade or more, Honda's U3-X leverages gyroscopic balace control technologies developed by the company's robotics division. It must be pretty good -- it only has one wheel.

Most importantly, it's part of the launch pad for Honda's HELLO! (it stands for Honda ELectric mobility LOop) portable communications device. It's Honda's interpretation of the car-to-X communications system -- X being other cars, an absent driver when the car is parked and wider networks like traffic management infrastructures.

The company is rolling HELLO! out through its FC-X Clarity fleet as well. It's a harbinger to one of the most technologies of the future -- a critical point of intersection between automotive, communications and computing technologies.

Amid the relatively scant info on the EV-N, suggestions have it that the LOOP device will provide operators with anywhere-anytime updates on the car's battery charge levels and taps on the shoulder about parking meter expiry.

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