Honda NSX delayed again for Australia

The most important car in Honda's global recovery plan is running late.

Development of the flagship NSX hybrid supercar has run into a roadblock in the United States and this will delay Australian deliveries by at least two months.

The delay is down to a change in the fundamental engine layout in the car and the knock-on effect on development work. The car was originally intended to have an transverse mounted V6 engine but will arrive in showrooms with a north-south engine.

Honda America has confirmed the delay this week but Honda Australia is refusing to go into detail and maintains there is no problem with the NSX.

"As far was we know, there is no problem with development," says Honda Australia spokeswoman Melissa Cross.

She says there will be a delay in deliveries but says the car will still arrive in 2016. "Production for Australia was pushed out by a few months. Our plan was always to launch the car in 2016 and we are still going ahead with this plan."

The return of the NSX to Honda showrooms is intended to revitalise the whole brand and highlight the company's new hybrid technology.

It uses three electric motors and a twin-turbocharged petrol V6 for a total output of more than 400kW.

The original NSX from the late 1980s was the first Japanese supercar and a rival to Ferrari. It failed to sell well because the incredible performance and aluminium technology were nobbled by a cabin that looked like a Civic.

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Honda has displayed the born-again NSX several times during its development, first as a concept car and more recently as a showroom-ready example.

It has now begun trial production of the NSX at Honda's Performance Manufacturing Centre in Ohio, which was developed specifically for low-volume production of the car.

Full details, including the critical pricing — tipped to be in the $250,000-plus range for Australia — are still secret and unlikely now to be made public until just before the first American deliveries at the end of this year.

The NSX is seen as a major plank of Honda's plans to recover from years of declining sales.

Since 2007, local sales have almost halved as a result of lacklustre products and cost-cutting after the GFC.

Sales have bounced back strongly in the first half of this year, with numbers up by almost a third thanks to a return to form with the versatile Jazz small car and the well-received introduction of the HR-V compact SUV.