Hondas CEO, Takanobu Ito loves the sound of his own voice. After calling Hyundai '
awesome', the CEO has now bashed the forthcoming Lexus LFA. The supercar has been branded 'a monster' by the new chief of rival firm Honda, Takanobu Ito.
The supercar was unveiled at the Tokyo motorshow last week. It's powered by a new 4.8 litre V10 that develops more than 550bhp. The top speed is quoted at more than 200mph. It goes on sale in 2011 for £343,000 and just 500 will be made. 17 orders have been made in the UK but only 2 are serious buyers. Europe's only Lexus LFA dealership will be on Park Lane, London. In total, Toyota UK has predicted it will sell 17 cars which will be built in two batches for delivery in 2011 and 2012.
However, Ito, who worked on Honda's last supercar the NSX, isn't impressed. 'I would love to see us develop another one [supercar], possibly as a green supercar,' said Ito. 'If we do – and it is a big if – it would not look like the monster that Toyota has announced.'
Ito also hinted that a hydrogen fuel cell powered supercar could be on the cards deep into the future. "It would be lighter than a petrol car, be fun to drive and has maximum torque from zero rpm," he said.
Honda’s boss also canned speculation he was planning to bring the company’s luxury brand Acura to Europe. "The economic crash forced us to change our plans, it’s not coming for the time being and I don’t know when it will," he admitted.
Ito also restated the company’s plans to broaden its range of hybrids. He revealed plans for twin motor hybrids for cars larger than a
Civic and committed the company to continue its development of petrol and diesel engines to go with them.
The long term goal for Honda though is to have a range of hydrogen fuel cell cars, but conceded that they would not be common place for at least two decades.
