The new Honda Civic in its new avatar will be unleashed across Europe in early 2017. The Japanese automotive giant aims to leverage on its new Civic hatchback version to raise its annual sales in Europe to 200, 000 units.
Additionally, Honda confirmed that it will launch the Acura NSX hybrid supercar in 2016.
The new 2017 model of the Honda Civic will be manufactured exclusively at its production plant in the UK. For this express purpose, Honda has invested €270 million in new processes and technologies taking the total investment on the UK site to €3 billion from 1985. That the new 5-door Honda Civic will be manufactured at the UK production plant is part of Honda’s strategy to make the UK factory a global production hub.
The Japanese car maker unveiled the 10th generation Honda Civic sedan in the US; the hatchback is expected to be imported from the UK once the production starts. Meanwhile, in the US, the Honda Civic sedan will feature a revamped 1.5L direct injected turbocharged 4-cylinder engine coupled to a CVT with an estimated output of 173 hp. Another option for the US Honda Civic sedan is a 2L iVTEC 4-cylinder engine delivering an output of 159 hp.
The Acura NSX hybrid concept car transition from concept to production is one of the longest periods seen in the automotive history. The primary reason for the delay is an alteration in the layout of the engine, which happened halfway through the development process. While initially, Honda came out with naturally aspirated V6 engine, the automotive engineers chose a turbocharged engine later.
This change resulted in constructing a V6 engine (turbocharged) and shifting to longitudinal configuration, all of which apparently slowed down the development and production process. Now, it appears that Honda might be ready with the Acura NSX by spring 2016 though official announcements are yet to be made by the company.
While the auto manufacturer has not released any technical specs regarding the Acura NSX, the turbocharged V6 engines are estimated to deliver 550 horsepower. The engine would be coupled to a 9-speed auto transmission gearbox.
