Honda NSX Electric supercar to top 30-car EV push
New NSX joins Honda EV blitz Electric supercar and sporting GT will lead burgeoning new range of Honda EVs
The Honda NSX will return as a supercar flagship for a 30-strong line-up of electric vehicles that Honda will launch as part of an ambitious £31 billion electrification strategy.
The Japanese company has pledged to achieve annual EV production volumes of more than two million by 2030, usher in solid-state battery technology and launch a pair of all-electric sports car flagships, all on the way to ending ICE car sales globally by 2040.
Honda aims to achieve net carbon-neutrality by 2050 but says “a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional approach” to electrification is needed, “not a mere replacing of engines with batteries”.
To this end, it will allocate a portion of an ¥8 trillion (£49bn) R&D budget to developing hydrogen powertrains and battery-swapping hardware as a means of facilitating the phase-out of combustion powertrains over the next 10 years. Of this, ¥5tn (£31bn) has been reserved exclusively for “electrification and software technologies”.
Honda has also given initial details of its rapid-fire global EV roll-out in the run-up to 2030 – and it includes an all-electric successor to the NSX supercar and a new grand tourer flagship.
“Honda always has a passion to offer fun for its customers,” the firm said, giving no details of the new sports cars but promising they will continue to offer a “sports mindset and distinctive characteristics”.
The grand tourer looks unrelated to any current model, but the new supercar’s silhouette bears an obvious resemblance to today’s NSX.
Meanwhile, in North America, Honda will launch two “mid to large” electric SUVs in alliance with General Motors in 2024 and three years later a range of “affordable” EVs with “cost and range that will be as competitive” as petrol cars’.
Ten new Honda EVs are set to be launched in China by 2027. In Japan, the firm will start with a small commercial EV priced from around £6000 before introducing passenger cars, including an electric SUV. In 2026, Honda will start rolling out a new software-integrated e:Architecture EV platform – an evolution of that used by its sole existing BEV, the E supermini – which will come with the latest generation of its Sensing autonomous driving functionality.
Honda has already previewed a radical new design language for this new era of electric cars, with a trio of striking e:-badged concept cars in 2021.
The enhanced connectivity brought by the e:Architecture platform is fundamental to Honda’s forward strategy. The firm said: “Honda positions its electrified products as ‘terminals’ and connects energy and information stored in each product with its users and society”. As with other manufacturers, enhancing the connectivity of its vehicles will open up significant new revenue streams for Honda.
Hybrid NSX will bow out this year. New NSX and GT are part of the EV roll-out due by 2030.
In Europe, Honda will launch an HR-V-size electric SUV in 2023 and is targeting a 40% share of its sales for EVs, including fuel cell vehicles, by 2030. Honda revealed a preview of its new e:-badged EVs last October