Mibe’s revelation follows similar comments from Akio Toyoda, chairman of rival brand Toyota, who confirmed last year that his company had begun testing its own electric sports car prototype. Like Mibe, he declined to give any technical details, but said: “The first priority of making these kinds of cars is that they need to be fun to drive, no matter what powertrain they use.”
Just as Toyoda is a vocal exponent of Toyota’s continued investment in performance cars, so too is Mibe a driving force behind bringing a Honda sporting EV to fruition. “We have not decided on mass production or timing,” he said, “but, personally, I would like to make it happen.”
It was Mibe who confirmed, way back in 2011 when he was Honda’s R&D boss, plans to revive the NSX for a third generation with an electrified powertrain, telling Autocar then that he believed “electric or hybrid vehicles can be fun as well as economical”.
More recently, he doubled down on this notion at the reveal of the new Prelude coupé concept. He called the sporty hybrid a showcase of “Honda’s unalterable sports mindset” and pointed to the firm’s continued involvement in Formula 1 as a sign that it remains committed to performance.
Notably, Honda’s US-market premium brand Acura has already previewed its own vision of an electric supercar, with early images hinting at an aggressive, cab-forward silhouette that mimics the mid-engined layout of the NSX. It has not, however, confirmed a date for the full unveiling, and nor has Honda itself linked itself to the project.