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Interview: Honda CEO on Sports Cars, Manual Transmissions, and HondaJet

Speaking With Takahiro Hachigo About Honda's Present and Future
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Takahiro Hachigo took over as CEO of Honda last June and spent months settling into the job before opening up to the American press. Motor Trend was able to sit down with the engineer turned executive at a recent product demonstration to discuss the company's present and future.

There's a new NSX and rumors of a new S2000. After so many years without any dedicated sports cars, why now?

When we talk about sports cars at Honda, it is in our DNA. We are planning and want to continue introducing more sporty cars, but this is part of a future lineup we cannot talk about yet. It will not just be in sports cars, but we will continue to offer cars that are fun to drive, such as the new Civic. S2000—I don't know how you feel about this, but I would like to ask you how you feel about a revival. At Honda, we are still considering if there is a demand and a business case, and we will listen to the customer. Nothing has been decided yet.

If sports cars are in your DNA, is the manual transmission, as well?

I love driving, and I love the emotion of a manual transmission. Whether we can continue to offer the more sporty transmission—that is up to the customer, but I would love to see the manual transmission survive.

Honda has been through a rough patch in the past five years and is still recovering. What happened?

If you were to ask what changed five years ago, we tried to strengthen our global six-region operation into what it is today. We listened to the voice of our North American region.

Honda is one of only a few automakers to put a hydrogen car on the road. What's your reasoning?

We think hydrogen, which is CO2-free, is the ultimate technology we should pursue. The key will be in how we create hydrogen. We have to have the infrastructure. For this, we have the [Smart Hydrogen Station], but we will not be able to do this alone. This will affect our business. I think in North America the infrastructure will be built, and we are working with the government in Japan, so these will be important markets. Technology-wise, I think we have witnessed significant progress in [fuel cell vehicles]. I think what remains is technology to produce hydrogen in large quantity and building infrastructure. I think in the next 10 years, we will see this technology and infrastructure improve and allow for mass production of FCVs.

Will you still pursue hybrids and battery electric vehicles like your competitors?

We think the hybrid system is the first step toward electrification, and we have the plug-in hybrids and the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, which we think is the ultimate technology for zero emissions. It's not the case we're not going to do any BEVs; no, that will be part of our strategy.

Honda recently demonstrated a high-performance EV. Is this a product you intend to pursue?

We do not have plans to commercialize [that vehicle], but we wanted to demonstrate what we think is fun to drive. In the future, those elements will be introduced to other products. We do not plan to offer a car like this but to develop the fun-to-drive concept, which can be applied to future products.

You've spoken of being greener but also being fun to drive and building more sports cars. How do you reconcile these goals?

I think combining these things will be challenging and difficult, but fun to drive is an important quality to Honda, and we must preserve that going forward.

There have been many calls for consolidation and partnerships in the industry recently. Is Honda open to either?

It is true we are working with GM on the next generation of FCVs. If we see there is an advantage for Honda, we are open to technical partnerships. We do not feel a pressure to make partnerships, but we are open to them.

Given Honda is primarily an automaker, why is the company building the HondaJet?

For Honda, we have this aim to try to offer the joy of mobility to people worldwide, and we believe mobility in the sky is part of this. This was a goal of our founder, and I think our founder's dream is the biggest reason why we have decided to do this. It is a difficult market, and we must make sure we have a strong long-term plan.

Scott Evans

Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.

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