Honda hedges its bets at Geneva with electric predictions and hyper Type-R

Honda reckons that two out of every three cars we buy will be electric, or a hybrid or plugin hybrid by 2025. Honda Europe's President and COO, Katsushi Inoue told the Geneva motor show this morning that his company is committing to an electric future in Europe, and will next year launch a a hybrid model which uses twin electric motors for improved performance.

Honda has lagged behind the electric and hybrid revolution in recent years, in spite of being the first car maker to bring an all-electric model (the original Insight) to the market. The second generation Insight, the Civic Hybrid and the CR-Z hybrid coupe have all disappeared from European sales lists in recent years as Honda has concentrated on developing its Clarity hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. That  will change now, according to Inoue, who said that "we will leverage Honda's global R&D resources to accelerate the introduction of a full portfolio of advanced, electrified powertrains for the European customer."

The Clarity fuel cell car is on show in Geneva, following a US debut last year, and boasts what Honda claims is a class-leading 700km range on one tank of hydrogen.

Honda has also brought its NeuV electric autonomous car concept to Geneva, following a debut at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year. The NeuV supposedly uses and ‘emotion engine’ called HANA (Honda Automated Network Assistant), which learns from the driver by detecting emotions behind their judgments. It can then apply what it has learnt from the driver’s past decisions to make new choices and recommendations. It also includes an electrically-assisted scooter in the boot.

Type-R

Bringing us back to rather more Earthly pursuits, Honda has also launched the new Civic Type-R in Geneva. We saw a concept version of this hottest Civic last year, and aside from the application of Grand Prix White paintwork, little seems to have changed. It takes the rather fussy styling of the new Civic hatchback (which goes on sale in Ireland this week, priced from €23,750) and adds bulk like a weightlifter chugging down the whey protein.

The Type-R carries over the 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine from the previous Civic Type-R, but power has swollen to 320hp, and torque is now up to 400Nm. For now, the Type-R will come only with a six-speed manual transmission.

Honda has boosted the body’s stiffness over that of the standard hatch by 38 per cent, thanks to the use of more adhesive bonding material, while the suspension has been lowered and stiffened.

As before, there’s an electronic driving control system which allows you to select Sport or +R modes, but there’s a new Comfort mode which might make daily driving a touch more bearable. Honda claims that the Civic’s aggressive aerodynamic bodykit gives it the best balance between lift and drag in the class.

The new Civic Type-R will also make a little history in becoming the first Honda-badged Type-R model to be sold in the US. Previous hot Hondas have always been sold badged as upmarket Acuras in the States.