Honda to launch three sports cars, Legend and Jazz SUV by 2015 | CarAdvice

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Honda to launch three sports cars, Legend and Jazz SUV by 2015

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By Tim Beissmann
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The boss of Honda has confirmed a new Civic Type-R hot-hatch, a Jazz-based baby SUV, a new Legend flagship sedan and a successor to the S2000 convertible sports car will all go in production within the next three years.

Honda CEO Takanobu Ito made the exciting revelations during his mid-year speech, in which he outlined the Japanese company’s plans and ambitions for much of the next decade.

Headlining the presentation was confirmation of the return of the Honda Civic Type-R, which Ito said is being developed with the goal of becoming the fastest front-wheel drive vehicle around the Nurburgring. Honda plans to launch the fourth-generation Civic Type-R by 2015.

Starting the showroom revolution will be an all-new Honda Jazz city car, which will be reach international markets in 2013.

Within two years of its launch, Honda will introduce a new light-sized City sedan and a sub-compact SUV based on the same platform, with the latter sitting below the CR-V in the line-up to take on the likes of the upcoming Ford EcoSport and Holden Trax.

Honda says each model built off its new Jazz platform will feature its own unique design and characteristics.

The next-generation Honda Legend will launch in Japan in 2014 featuring an innovative three-motor hybrid system dubbed Sport Hybrid SH-AWD (super handling all-wheel drive). The new propulsion system, which will also underpin the long-awaited second-generation Honda NSX and the new Acura RLX sports sedan for North America, promises to deliver high levels of handling performance and fuel economy.

Adding to Honda’s growing list of upcoming sports cars is a spiritual successor to the S2000, which the manufacturer says will hit the market by 2014. Honda describes the new model as an “open-top sports car with strong vehicle dynamics”, potentially drawing inspiration from last year’s EV-STER concept (below), targeting the likes of the Mazda MX-5 and Mini Cooper.

The new compact convertible will be one of six new “mini-vehicle” models introduced by Honda in Japan before the end of 2015, the first of which, the Honda N-One, goes on sale in November.

Honda also plans to diversify its range in developing markets – particularly Thailand, Indonesia, India and Malaysia – with a sedan and a “utility-type” model built on the platform of the sub-light Brio hatch.

Seven years after it introduced the hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity to the market, Honda will launch an all-new fuel cell electric vehicle across Japan, Europe and the US from 2015. Honda says the vehicle will showcase “further technological advancement and significant cost reduction” compared with the first-generation FCX Clarity.

The brand is also working hard on future single-motor electric and dual-motor plug-in hybrid vehicles, similar to 2011′s AC-X concept (above), as it strives to achieve the highest average fuel economy of any hybrid manufacturer.

Under the broad product expansion plans, Honda is aiming to grow its sales in mature markets (namely Japan, Europe and the US) from 2.06 million last financial year to more than three million units in the financial year ending March 31, 2017.

It also plans to double its sales in emerging markets to more than three million by the same time to take its global automotive sales to in excess of six million.


 

  • hmph

    comeback?

    • JJ

      Well yeah. The brand has sucked for quite a number of years now.

      • Zaccy16

        Yeah they need a big comeback!

  • AndyGF

    Something tells me this announcement was for the benefit of the share-price. :( Nothing to do with enthusiastic drivers/fans…

    Until honda gets ‘access’ to proper direct injection petrol engines on mass, we wont be seeing anything from honda other than horrible people movers coughing around on technology with little  change from the 1989 PGM-FI…

    • AndyGF

      People forget it was not honda that AXED their fun cars, it was their antiquated technology and its inability to meet modern emission requirements…

      Honda are just lucky their target market actually expect to drive guts-less cars (oldies/etc), they still claim okay figures on paper, but every time I have driven the next generation honda, its more and more guts-less in the mid-range than it was before…

    • F1orce

      You make direct injection like its some miracle..
      Mind you, the upcoming Accord will have DI

      • AndyGF

        So they claim…
        (they will probably pull a camry and say it has direct “port” fuel injection, fooling a few motor journalists along the way and ripping off plenty of customers… toyotas favourite past time… what a feeling — at least they are trying with the 86 half-job DI, ill give em that, its not the best system but it is better than usual fuel injection.)

        …and DI is a “miracle” for the emissions of higher specific output engines (powerful+small) like turbocharged engines; Both of which are since emissions regulations kicked into high gear have been hondas bugbear!

        • F1orce

          Toyota has D4-S which has direct injection + port injection

          It’s one of the best injection system available.

          It optimises A/F mixture and allows more power, less fuel consumption, less emissions & better NVH

          • AndyGF

            “It optimises A/F mixture and allows more power, less fuel consumption, less emissions & better NVH”

            *VS* Just boggo ‘port injection’ then YES!

            But which do you think is responsible for the gains over the port injection (it itself being the baseline for comparison?), the direct injection gives it all those advantages… hence its a “miracle” as you so eloquently put it.

            Your point was?

          • Roger

             His point is that DI doesn’t do well with high revving engine, hence DI + Port injection (DI for mid to low rpm, port for high rpm), which combine the best of both technologies. Again both Honda and Toyota has DI in JDM models but they are not pushing it out throughout the world as per hyundai or kia.

            PS: DI is good, but multi-air is even better

          • AndyGF

            “DI doesn’t do well with high revving engine”… ??? ROFL!

            Port injection has a problem called ‘injector phasing’, because the injector sits *behind* the intake valve it has to be able to add ALL the fuel required for clean stoich burn in ever quickening *bursts* as the revs climb higher. While this problem can be worked around by placing injectors further behind the value etc, the TRUTH is that port injection gets dirtier and less accurate as the revs climb because of this ‘limited window of opportunity’ provided by the intake valve.

            Because the Japs have not yet perfected (or should I say cant) their piezoelectric injectors which allow for multiple bursts from the DIRECT INJECTORS, they have to revert to dirty old port injection because of their under-engineered D4-S garbage is incapable of delivering enough fuel as the revs climb. Which means that unlike the old days, the japs are now having to hack their way through problems, and doubling-up systems just to make do, hence why they are nowhere near as reliable as their engines once were.

  • gt86.com.au

    Will honda still be around by 2015? I wonder how their books are doing..

    • BRYZT

      What a shame..You know nothing about Honda

    • Roger

       Honda is so much bigger outside of Australia market (US, southeast Asia), on the other hand Mazda is doing very well in Australia but not so good in other market

  • Guest

    hmmm. mind you that their profits actually quadrupled in the last quarter. 

    • Petrolhead

      woooo, quarupled… so what? honda’s profit has hit rock bottom floor over the past few years, because of their incompetence. even though their profit quadrupled, it pretty much means nothing.

  • Petrolhead

    i didn’t even know honda still existed, no offence.

  • Ianmckay5

    Honda the largest engine manufacture in the world.

  • Zaccy16

    should have released a new s2000 years ago to put some life into the brand and to try and get rid of the ‘hondas are for old people image!

  • Antmindel

    I wonder if the mid sized sedan pictured will be the all new 2014 Accord Euro/Honda Spirior/Acura TLX ???
    It has been dubbed the Honda concept c,would make a nice replacement of my current flawless 2010 Euro.
    If not that,maybee off to Mazda to look at the all new 2013 Mazda 6 ???

  • Lapietra Mike

    Wow. If they look anything like the hideous cars in the pics here Honda are dead.

  • PIZZA

    Pricing is the key! Hope the Type-R and S2000 are made in US and the new Jazz supply from China…money is hard to come by these days….

    • davie

      the game has moved for the s2000. It will complete against Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ. 

      No point pricing it like the $50,000 mx-5

  • Pauly

    Its great to see Honda have some sporty ambitions back on the cards with:

    - Civic Type R
    - S2000 Replacement (Please make this a 86/BRZ competitor)- NSXDont forget Honda dont just make cars. Motorbikes and engines are a HUGE part of Honda.

  • Guest

    not sure why honda in aus is so bad while overseas they are doing fine…. i think its just honda aus screwing up. LOL… fail.

  • Richard

    2015 for the TypeR?  Renault will be onto the next gen Megane by then.  VW will have had the lightweight Mk7 Golf GTI out for 2 yrs.  There is no point promising cars 24+ months in the future.

  • Kaas

    What destroyed Honda in Oz was the high price…
    I remember 3-4 years back, Honda Jazz sporty model was 32K driveaway… really???

  • Trev

    most people wouldnt know what the hell everyone on this page is talking about

    you could write intravenous injection on a car and 90% of people would be impressed. Its just the few of us that know cars, know beyond the bonnet.

    hondas main problem was price. As the owner of an 2002 jazz which i then sold and now have an 09 model, it makes me laugh to see my friends with, volkswagens and mazdas, having to take them back constantly to have issues fixed. 

    10 years of jazz ownership here, and no issues. 

    bring on the jazz suv i say! 

  • Arno958

    The JD power reliability, sericing and ownership satisfaction survey results for Australasia gave Honda top marks with Toyota in equal place. In the US Honda tops the survey and in the UK too. People in Aus just follow the herd. THey all buy fashion acessory Madzda 3′s but the bog standard Mazda 3 is woefully uneconomical. That brand, so popular here, isn’t even on the radar overseas…..Honda Australia need kicking into shape. Why don’t they build their adverts around the JD Pwer customer satisfaction survey?! I would, wouldn’t you??!!!