Production of the hybrid Honda NSX has ended, just short of 3000 cars – and the Japanese car-maker is now looking towards a battery-powered successor.
The final second-generation Honda NSX has been built in the US, marking the end of the road for the Japanese company’s hybrid supercar.
Powered by a twin-turbo 3.5-litre V6 engine and three electric motors (one driving the rear wheels, two driving the front), Honda’s reborn hybrid NSX developed 427kW in standard trim and 449kW in its final ‘Type S’ guise.
The last Honda NSX – badged in North America as an Acura, Honda’s luxury division – to be produced was a Type S, painted in ‘Gotham Grey’ and fitted with a plaque signifying it is the last of the 350 limited-run examples to be built.
Just 30 of the 350 NSX Type S examples were built for the right-hand-drive Japanese market, while 20 were bound for other markets, and the remaining 300 cars remained in the US.
Between May 2016 and November 2022, 2908 examples of the second-generation NSX were built at the company’s US factory in Marysville, Ohio – far less the 18,685 examples of its predecessor, produced in Japan between 1990 and 2005.
The Honda NSX endured a four-year run in Australia with just nine examples sold, eventually being dropped from the local line-up in 2020.
Honda recently reiterated its plans to introduce an electric successor to its hybrid supercar, completing its journey from being a petrol-only model to battery-powered across three generations.
In September, Acura vice president Jon Ikeda was asked whether the next Honda NSX would be electric, replying: “I would bet on it. It’s going to be electric.”
In April 2021, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe announced the car maker would end production of petrol and diesel engines globally by 2040, switching to battery and hydrogen fuel-cell electric cars.
While Honda insiders told Nikkei Asia it would be “a couple more years” until the company’s e:Architecture electric-car platform is ready for a battery-powered NSX, Mr Mibe will reportedly have the final say on whether the supercar is approved for production.
According to Honda, its Marysville, Ohio factory – officially known as the Performance Manufacturing Center – will continue to build limited-edition variants of Acura’s TLX sedan and RDX SUV, nether of which are sold in Australia.
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