Honda is conducting growth work on an electrical sports activities automotive, CEO Toshihiro Mibe stated in a lately revealed interview with Autocar.

The automaker is “researching sports activities vehicles within the EV period,” Mibe stated. That is not precisely affirmation of a manufacturing electrical sports activities automotive, however Mibe stated growth work is “steadily continuing,” including that “on the R&D middle, we now have a sports activities automotive.”

Acura Electrical Imaginative and prescient Design idea

Honda can be analyzing potential rivals, Mibe stated. The automaker is not trying to copy present sports activities vehicles, although, as any potential efficiency EV will “have a totally completely different style” from any efficiency automotive Honda has launched thus far, Mibe stated.

The EV growth program might be the muse for an all-electric alternative for the Acura NSX, one thing Honda has hinted at earlier than. In 2021, the pinnacle of Acura promised that one other NSX will arrive ultimately, and that an EV could be a logical development from the gasoline first-generation NSX and the hybrid second-generation mannequin.

Honda 0 Saloon idea

Honda in 2022 teased two electrical sports activities vehicles, one in every of which appeared like a possible NSX alternative. Final yr it supplied one other preview of a possible electrical NSX with the Acura Electrical Imaginative and prescient Design idea. NSX badging or not, an electrical sports activities automotive would probably use underpinnings from the Honda 0 Sequence EVs rolling out from 2026, beginning with an electrical sedan for North America previewed by a CES 2024 idea automotive.

In the meantime, rival Toyota could also be working by itself electrical sports activities automotive. The automaker unveiled a idea known as by FT-Se on the 2023 Tokyo auto present. Firm chairman and former CEO Akio Toyoda stated a number of months prior that he was personally concerned in growth of an electrical sports activities automotive, claiming Toyota was engaged on options like a handbook transmission and simulated engine sounds to extend driver involvement.