Currently reading: Honda could launch successor to S2000 sports car

Company boss says that, while there are no current plans, it could reintroduce model in time if there is demand

Honda boss Takahiro Hachigo has not ruled out the firm launching a successor to its S2000 sports cars.

“As of today, I cannot say clearly that S2000 will be reinvented as further studies are necessary,” Hachigo said at the Tokyo motor show

Honda has launched three new performance cars in recent years, each a reinvention of a previous mode: the S660 kei car in Japan, the Civic Type R hot hatch and the Honda NSX supercar. At this year’s Tokyo motor show, Honda has previewed a future electric sports car with the Sports EV concept.

Tokyo motor show 2017 - live coverage

Hachigo was surprisingly open in discussing whether or not a new S2000 would join that stable of performance models. He said the firm always wanted to “pose new models with the joy of driving”, and had a strong history of doing so. Autocar reported in 2015 that the company was developing a new S2000 as a Mazda MX-5 rival.

He said Honda’s priority was to create “evolutions of all three types of performance cars we have now for next generations”.

Beyond that, he appeared open to the idea of an S2000 making a comeback: “I’ve already heard many voices expressing they’d like a next-generation S2000. Honda development engineers are quick to develop sporty cars if the requests are there.

“All over the world – in Japan, North America, Europe, China – more and more voices are expressing the desire to reinvent S2000. However, it has not matured yet. It’s not time yet. We need time to decide if S2000 is reinvented or not. 

“If the sales people investigate, look at it and they’re really enthusiastic, maybe we look at it.”

The S2000 roadster was produced by Honda from 1999 until 2009.

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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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LP in Brighton 25 October 2017

Could, but won't

Let's face it there just isn't the market for small two-seater sports cars any more, and what there is is amply taken care of by Mazda with its MX5. For Honda the priority (at least in Europe) must be to achieve a decent sales volume and profitability from its mainstream models. Anything else would just be a distraction. 

MrJ 25 October 2017

The last Honda whose styling

The last Honda whose styling I really liked was the S2000. The Prelude, CR-X, Integra, maybe even the CR-V Gen 2 were OK too.

Since then, Honda seems to have been on a campaign of uglifying everything it makes.

AQ42 25 October 2017

So what about the Prelude,

So what about the Prelude, the CR-X and the Integra? Honda still has a long way to go to regain its past glories.