This “halfway category” is composed by exposition vehicles focused precisely on showing concepts, rather than anticipating one particular car. Ford Evos, for instance, didn’t hit the streets itself but showed much of what the new Fusion brought a year later, besides creating a clearer picture of what to expect from the soon-to-arrive Mustang. When it comes to Honda, there were similar expectations regarding Urban SUV because it looked just too "unreal". Those sharp creases and unusual shapes seemed too bold to be mass-produced, even though almost everyone loved them. But, as it turns out, that vehicle has always been the real deal.
Sure, there are some minor changes, like at the headlights, wheels and front grille, but it’s essentially the same car. Honda’s latest design language appears once again, specially at the front fascia, but Vezel takes much more attention for its overall shapes. It uses a rounded roof which could perfectly suit coupés in order to escape from the trend of mini-SUVs like Peugeot 2008 or Dacia Duster, while avoid turning into another taller hatchback like Ford EcoSport or Renault Captur. Not that any of those is a bad car at all, but since this category has such a strong relation with the design, when there are too many competitors it’s better to come up with a new formula, rather than following the traditional ones once again.
That’s why Vezel arrives filled with innovative styling solutions, such as the aforementioned roof line and some very creative creases. The side ones, for instance, help to hide the “existance” of the rear doors almost like what Citroën did with DS4 and Chevrolet with Sonic, including placing the handles behind the rear windows. Sure, the solution per se isn’t new, but this is the first time it left hatchbacks and sedans to appear in a taller vehicle. And the rear finishes the excellent impressions with gorgeous irregularly-shaped lights, whose external contours are defined by more creases which try to resemble how the rest of the car looks.
Another interesting item is that Vezel’s silhouette leads to think of a (very) reduced-scale, even sportier BMW X6. The German car has impressed everyone since its release precisely for being a much more “casual” version of its brother X5. But since X6 is a much bigger car and comes from a much more conservative automaker, the biggest “subversion” of the typical SUV style are concentrated on its unusual silhouette. Vezel takes advantage of living in a context of much more freedom and turned a vehicle perfectly capable of attracting primarily for its looks, rather than being just another nice option in its category. Considering how aggressive this category is, this is a pretty big deal.
However, since this is still an urban car, Honda wouldn’t forget its habitability. Vezel’s dashboard is surprisingly discreet just like the latest Odyssey’s, probably because this way makes it simpler to operate. Instead of a set of futuristic shapes and several combinations of multiple-tone coating, this cabin concentrates all the commands in a neat touchscreen, leaving only the climate controls to a smaller cluster of its own. Since it borrows the latest Fit’s all-new platform, it’s easy to expect excellent internal space and versatile seats, despite the reduced size of a typical compact crossover. Besides, the term “crossover” defines this car actually better than “urban SUV”, for how many qualities of different car segments were joined here.
Since compact crossovers became one of the strongest car trends of the latest years, Honda wants to make up to the fact that most of Vezel’s competitors are already at the streets by hurrying with its worldwide arrival: it was announced that the Japanese sales will start the next 19th, while the Brazilian production starts in a few months. The only differences for the cars sold outside Honda’s homeland concern the name (the most expected name is CR-U, in order to remind of CR-V) and the powertrain options. In Japan, Vezel arrives with a direct-injected 1.5L engine and is intended to receive a hybrid version later.