How Will Honda Ever Be Able To Meet The World's Demand For The NSX?

Sep. 03, 2016 2:15 PM ET byMichael Hines /13 Comments

If you're waiting for an NSX prepare for a long haul.

It took Honda years to bring the Acura NSX from Super Bowl commercial star to production. The issue of the delay was one of development,specifically regarding the engine. The original unit was naturally aspirated but it was swapped for a hybrid setup. The way the engine was mounted also changed, going from a transverse configuration to a longitudinal one. But now those problems are in the past and everything is awesome, right? Well, yes, but we still think Honda is going to have a new NSX problem on its hands. How will it ever be able to meet demand?

There is only one plant in the world where the NSX is built, and that's in Marysville, Ohio. The good news is that the plant only builds the hybrid supercar and nothing else. The bad news is that there's only one production line to meet the entire world's demand. Now this car isn't meant to be sold in high volumes of course. The original NSX was around for 15 years and only 18,000 some odd cars were sold. That's an average of about 1,200 units per year. According toAsia Times, Honda's goal in its first year of the new NSX production is to build 800 cars for the US and around 100 for Japan. So far it's looking like it will fall far short of that goal. At least according to existing data.

Good Car Bad Car only has stats on the NSX for three months June-August of this year, and only for the US, so our data is a bit limited. But in those three months a total of 45 cars have been sold. Now selling a car and producing a car are two different things. But we have to think that these numbers are similar as the demand for the NSX is obviously there. Honda has tons of orders to fill so why wouldn't it do so as quickly as possible considering the fact that it already took them in the first place? Anyway, the monthly breakdown is as follows: two cars in June, 21 cars in July and 22 cars in August. Obviously June seems to be an outlier but the jump from July to August is worrisome. An increase in production of one car isn't anything to write home about.

Of course we're no automotive production experts. Honda knows full well what it's doing and we certainly expect these numbers to jump as the months go by. But just because we aren't experts in mass supercar production doesn't mean it's unreasonable to question how quickly production will increase. After all, it took Honda years to get the Acura NSX onto the production line. Could it take that long to boost production? No, but we're willing to bet that its progress will be incremental rather than monumental. Long story short: If you're waiting for your NSX be prepared to wait quite some time.