The Acura NSX is dead. Long live the Acura NSX. Honda may show off a new version of its beloved exotic car as soon as next month.
The clues are not crystal clear. But, if you’ve followed the company’s electrification plans, you know where they point.
Next month sees the arrival of the Japan Mobility Show (the new name of the old Tokyo Motor Show). This week, Honda sent the media a breakdown of what it plans to display. It’s an extensive list, from a complete interior mockup of its Honda Jet business aircraft to a fold-up electric scooter it calls the Pocket Concept.
But the most intriguing detail is buried under the generic “Honda Specialty Sports Concept.” Honda says the “Concept model of an electric sports car” will “enable the driver to experience the pure joy of driving (driving pleasure) and transcend the constraints of time.”
We’re not sure what that second part means. But the automotive press seems convinced that the first part means a new NSX. Industry publication Automotive News speculates it’s “a spiritual successor to the NSX,” if not a direct descendant.
Motor Trend thinks “Honda and its Acura luxury brand were very open to the idea of a future, all-new, all-electric NSX sports car, and now it looks like it could be coming sooner rather than later.”
The Most Accessible Supercar
The NSX, first introduced in 1990, earned a reputation as the most livable supercar — with Ferrari-like driving dynamics but the reliability and comfort of a Honda. It was sold as the Honda NSX overseas but wore a luxury Acura badge stateside.
It has come and gone from the market over the 33 years since, most recently bowing out in 2021 as a high-performance hybrid.
But Honda has been teasing the idea of an electric successor ever since. The company showed off a rendering of a very NSX-like shape under a sheet last year when it announced plans for 30 electric vehicles by 2030.
A press release last month included heavily shadowed teaser photos of an “electric vision design study” that seemed a strange thing to release if it wasn’t leading to something.
Perhaps that something will appear in Tokyo next month. We’ll bring more details as we have them.
