Honda would consider 'green' sports car, CEO says

Honda would consider 'green' sports car, CEO say

Honda Motor Co. would consider launching an environmentally friendly sports car when it has enough cash available, CEO Takanobu Ito said on the sidelines of the Tokyo auto show.

"I would like to make a sports car," Ito said. "Once we have that technology and once we have cash on hand, I would like to see Honda have a sports car that symbolizes our technology."

Ito said Honda's sports car would not be like the Lexus LFA supercar unveiled at the show. "It would be environmentally friendly and have great performance," he said.

Toyota plans to build just 500 units of the $375,000 Lexus LFA two-seater car, which has a 4.8-liter V10 engine that can reach speeds of 200 mph.

Honda had been preparing a successor model for its legendary NSX sports car, also with a V10 engine, but ditched those plans last year citing an urgent need to save money amid the economic downturn and the growing consumer shift toward greener cars.

Ito believes the future is about clean, sustainable cars, and sports cars are no exception.

"Sure, there are folks who like that 'vroom' of the engine out of nostalgia," Ito told Reuters earlier this month. "But those people are stuck in the past. The era of V10 engines is gone."

Before becoming Honda CEO in late June, Ito was best known for designing the ground-breaking all-aluminum chassis for the NSX in 1990.