Honda is conducting development work on an electric sports car, CEO Toshihiro Mibe said in a recently published interview with Autocar.
The automaker is "researching sports cars in the EV era," Mibe said. That's not exactly confirmation of a production electric sports car, but Mibe said development work is "steadily proceeding," adding that "at the R&D center, we have a sports car."
Acura Electric Vision Design concept
Honda is also analyzing potential competitors, Mibe said. The automaker isn't looking to copy existing sports cars, though, as any potential performance EV will "have a completely different taste" from any performance car Honda has launched so far, Mibe said.
The EV development program could be the foundation for an all-electric replacement for the Acura NSX, something Honda has hinted at before. In 2021, the head of Acura promised that another NSX will arrive eventually, and that an EV would be a logical progression from the gasoline first-generation NSX and the hybrid second-generation model.
Honda 0 Saloon concept
Honda in 2022 teased two electric sports cars, one of which looked like a potential NSX replacement. Last year it offered another preview of a potential electric NSX with the Acura Electric Vision Design concept. NSX badging or not, an electric sports car would likely use underpinnings from the Honda 0 Series EVs rolling out from 2026, starting with an electric sedan for North America previewed by a CES 2024 concept car.
Meanwhile, rival Toyota may be working on its own electric sports car. The automaker unveiled a concept called by FT-Se at the 2023 Tokyo auto show. Company chairman and former CEO Akio Toyoda said a few months prior that he was personally involved in development of an electric sports car, claiming Toyota was working on features like a manual transmission and simulated engine sounds to increase driver involvement.