TTJ Tunku Idris’ Honda e Kena Scrape By BMW Singapore Mari

In Malaysia, some drivers really ‘perangai’ lah, even if they're just visiting from beyond our borders. Such was the case with a grey Singapore-registered BMW 3 Series (F30, 320i?) that scraped a Honda e somewhere in Johor, which belonged to a member of Johor royalty.

Even worse news for that careless BMW driver, the incident was all captured clearly on CCTV. Tunku Temenggong Johor Tunku Idris Iskandar Ibni Sultan Ibrahim, the owner of the electric Honda hatch, posted a picture of the car’s damaged fender as well as a picture of the car that inflicted it on social media.

The surveillance video was also uploaded, which showed the 3 Series clearly taking a much-too-wide berth to move into an empty parking nose-first space on its right-hand side, colliding with the Honda e which was parallel parked and out of its way. You can see the car sway a little as the BMW scraped against it.

More bewildering was the nonchalant attitude of the driver, who continued to park his car and just walked away without even so much as glancing at the damage he inflicted. Perhaps he presumed nobody had, or would, notice. And that this matter will just blow over.....Nice try, buddy.

That might have been the case if his irresponsible driving/parking involved another car belonging to you or me. Shame, then, for him, that the owner happened to be a high-profile individual - a member of the royal family (of the very state the Singaporean was visiting) no less, and noted car enthusiast.

Do they not teach proper driving technique or etiquette in Singapore?

We’re not sure if the attention this is getting will result in any action taken against the Singaporean 3 Series driver, especially when he attempts to cross the causeway. Guess it all depends on whether Tunku Idris chooses to pursue compensation. He might just brush it off given the fleet of cars he and his family has access to, but any normal driver would be more than a little livid.

For all we know, the matter has already been resolved. And we sincerely hope the righteous thing was done.

So far as the damaged car is concerned, the scrape doesn’t look too bad - it, or the majority, might even 'pop' and buff out. The ‘e’ as it’s called is one of the more interesting and innovative cars to emerge from Honda in the past few years.

Conceived as a shorter-distance city car and even debuting in 2017 as the Urban EV Concept, its design was inspired by the original Honda Civic and evokes similar cues from other small hatchbacks of the 1970s and early 80s such as the VW Golf MK1 and Peugeot 205, but given a much more modern twist.

Inside, the e’s cabin is notably large when contrasted against its exterior dimensions and utilises many natural, recycled, and recyclable materials while its dashboard consists of an immense 5-screen array to (over) serve all driving and infotainment needs.

Within its rounded shell resides a 35.5kWh lithium-ion battery and single electric motor at the rear axle that’s able to output 154PS and 315Nm, sustaining the hatch for as much as 220km on a single charge based on Honda’s claims.

That’s more range, more power, and more torque than the recently launched Mazda MX-30, another Japanese EV that coincidentally also sports a 35.5kWh battery. It’s a wonder why Honda Malaysia doesn’t seem keen to offer the e locally as its specifications and general appeal…