Report: Honda CEO Wants to Build Green Sports Car, Slams Lexus LFA

[MikeCR-Z]

Report: Honda CEO Wants to Build Green Sports Car, Slams Lexus LFA

Speaking to reporters at the Tokyo Auto Show, Honda CEO Takanobu Ito suggested that when the time is right he would like to build a “green” sports car. The Japanese automaker faces two big hurdles first, however: a lack of cash as well as insufficient technology. “Once we have that technology and once we have cash on hand, I would like to see Honda have a sports car that symbolizes our technology,” he told Automotive News.

While Honda is set to launch the compact hybrid CR-Z sports car next year, this new car would be a range-topping vehicle with optimum performance and fuel economy. Honda is struggling in the technology department, however, with hybrid systems that are much less efficient than competing systems.

Ito made the comments just after Toyota drew back the covers on its 560-hp Lexus LFA supercar, which uses “old fashioned” internal combustion technology. Earlier in the month he told Reuters that big displacement engines are nostalgic and that the people who like them are, “stuck in the past.” Knowing full well at the time that Toyota was about to debut its new V10-powered flagship, Ito professed that, “The era of V10 engines is gone.”

Until last year, Honda was in development of a V10-powered replacement to the Acura NSX, but Honda canned the project due economic concerns. The concept car’s harsh reviews by the automotive press also, no doubt, had a hand in the vehicle’s demise.

Link to article at AutoGuide

Image courtesy of AutoBlog

[HUBBSTER]

Even Ferrari has a Green project, so does Lambo. The new Super Ferrari to replace the Enzo will be a lot smaller, closer to a Lotus Elise w a twin turbo V8, like a modern F40

But Lotus has the best Green project, the whole body & interior of this prototype Elise is made of hemp and has solar panels on roof