Honda boss has again confirmed the car maker is working on an electric sports car which may see the hallowed NSX badge return to showrooms.
A successor to the Honda NSX supercar is coming, after Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe once again confirmed the car maker is working on a new halo electric sports car.
Mibe told UK publication Autocar that work was ‘progressing’ with a ‘good analysis’ on an electric sports car being carried out by the Japanese brand’s research and development department.
“We have not decided on mass production or timing but, personally, I would like to make it happen.”
Honda – which began in September 1948 – has hinted that it would have a halo sports car in showrooms to celebrate its 75th anniversary year.
Honda teased two electric sports car concepts in 2022, seen as successors to the S2000 and the NSX, as it announced a $AU53.7 billion (five trillion Japanese yen) investment in electric technology.
Honda also said it would introduce 30 electric cars by 2030 – and specifically noted this would include sports cars.
The latest comments followed Honda revealing its ‘0 Series’ electric vehicle line-up at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, USA.
The 0 Series concepts included a large electric car platform that will be used for a saloon (sedan) but may be suitable for the new battery-powered sports car.
The first saloon version of the 0 Series is, according to Honda, due in showrooms in 2026.
A sports car using the 0 Series underpinnings would have a distinctly different character to the saloon and other 0 Series electric cars, suggested Mibe.
“The first priority of making these kinds of cars is that they need to be fun to drive, no matter what powertrain they use,” he said.
Autocar pointed to comments Mibe made in 2011 – when he was in charge of Honda’s research and development department – about a third-generation NSX using an electric powertrain.
Mibe said “electric or hybrid vehicles can be fun as well as economical”.
In 2021, Jon Ikeda, the vice president of Acura – the Honda sub-brand the previous NSX was sold under in the US – added further weight to speculation surrounding the return of the halo sports car.
Ikeda suggested the NSX would make a comeback as an electric sports car, saying, “The first-gen was gas [petrol]. Second-gen was a hybrid. There’s going to be another one.”
The Acura Electric Vision Design Study revealed at Monterey Car Week in August 2023 may also offer a glimpse of what an NSX successor may look like.
The Electric Vision Concept was designed in Acura’s California studio and has similar low-slung proportions to the previous NSX.
Produced between 2016 and 2022 – with only nine making it to Australia – the previous NSX was also designed and engineered in the US and used a mid-mounted engine as part of a hybrid powertrain.
The Electric Vision Design Study also showed features such as the rear light design paying homage to the first Honda NSX, introduced in 1990 and sold until 2005.
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