Currently reading: Tokyo motor show 2011: Honda's Tokyo show Boxster rival

New mid-engined Honda Small Sports EV Concept gets Tokyo debut along with stylish new saloon

Honda has revealed this dramatic new mid-engined sports car concept as the star of the Tokyo motor show.

Next to no details on the targa-roofed Honda Small Sports EV Concept have been released by Honda, with the firm only saying that the car previews a “next-generation compact EV sports model that’s fun to drive while achieving excellent environmental performance”.

The car is not quite the successor to the NSX supercar that Honda insiders had been hinting would be on display at Tokyo. Instead its size appears to be closely linked to the Porsche Boxster, a car that Honda’s US dealers are known to want to be able to rival, and the car that Honda has now revealed its intentions to chase sales wise.

Another Honda insider described the Tokyo concept as a “modern interpretation of the NSX”. This backs up the comments made by Honda CEO Takanobu Ito to Autocar at the recent Frankfurt motor show.

“You can’t depend on a high power output to call a car 'sports' any more,” said Ito. “The original NSX was about high power and good driving performance, but today power-to-weight is what we must focus on. We will not chase Ferrari for outright power; we want to chase efficiency as well.”

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Mark Tisshaw

mark-tisshaw-autocar
Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.

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