Honda is the latest marque to spill the beans on an upcoming monster model introduction splurge and its associated electrification intentions. Along with a planned two million-unit EV production volume by 2030, there is also talk of plans for two sports models.
Referred to as a ‘specialty’ and ‘flagship’ model, we can only imagine broad-stroke successors to Honda’s long-departed S2000 sportscar and outgoing NSX hybrid supercar. These two cars will be born of Honda’s intention to pass on the “joy of driving” in the era of electrification.
Substantiating our suspicions are the covered cars shown in a rendering, which appear to be a low-slung ‘front-engined’ model and an exotic ‘mid-engined’ model. Obviously neither will have engines in the sense that dictated these shapes in the past but will fit stylistically into those footprints. Whether the long-nosed car will be a development of the Sports EV Concept previewed a couple of years ago remains to be seen, though the low-slung snout suggests not.
Of course, the raw numbers will justify the showroom eye candy. As such these sports models will be the last of 30 electric models set to be introduced by 2030, with everything from small Japanese market vehicles to family cars and SUVs all considered to be in the pipeline. Honda’s e: Architecture will be born of the marque’s partnership with General Motors.
Honda has also outlined how these models will be built, with all-electric facilities planned in Guangzhou and Wuhan, China, as well as in North America. We wonder if the latter could be a rejig of the Ohio facility where the outgoing NSX was produced, or whether that too will be a GM collaboration.
Honda is known as an innovator and very much a broad perspective brand. As such, electrification is only part of the story, with explorations in hydrogen tech continuing, along with renewable fuels. It also plans to build a demonstration line for the production of next-generation all-solid-state batteries.
Big future moves coming from the storied Japanese brand, then. Would you welcome the return of a supercar and sportscar broadly in the image of the NSX and S2000 in the all-electric age? Let us know…
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