Honda updates NSX concept for 2013

Here's our first look inside Honda's NSX hybrid supercar, set to take on everything from the Audi R8 to the next-gen Mercedes SLS from 2015.

Just unveiled at the 2013 Detroit motor show, the concept's exterior styling has been updated (we first saw the NSX show car at the 2012 Detroit show) and Honda has now revealed a potential interior design for its new supercar too.

Not yet. Although it looks ready for the showroom, Honda is being coy about the design, calling it a 'possible direction for the NSX'. Dominating the fascia is a central touchscreen: the 'Simple Sports Interface'. Honda says it wants to minimise button clutter in the carbon-trimmed cockpit by relying on the screen for car set-up and infotainment functions.

Set into the sculpted dash, there's a whiff of Lexus LF-A about the NSX's cabin: the tall centre console rises to meet the screen like the spars inside a the Lexus, and we reckon that titchy carbon and leather steering wheel is a dead ringer for the LF-A too. Behind the wheel we see paddleshifters for the NSX's twin-clutch gearbox, and a screen which'll sport adaptive digital dials, like a Lamborghini Aventador.

It's a hybrid supercar, though not quite in the same league as the McLaren P1 or Ferrari F150 (on price as well as performance). We know the NSX – badged here as a US-friendly Acura – will team a mid-mounted, direct-injection petrol V6 with twin electric front motors. A third electric motor will assist the engine, and all that power will reach the road via Honda’s 'Sport Hybrid SH-AWD' (Super Handling All-Wheel Drive) system.

Unlike the classic Ayrton Senna-developed NSX of the 1990s, the new car won't be built on Japanese home soil. America will be the NSX's biggest market, so production (starting in 2015) is being entrusted to a new Ohio plant. An open-top NSX Roadster model will also see production.

The main change is from spindly five-spoke alloys to these more angular-design rims, while up front a hexagon-mesh grille replaces blanked-off grilles. Other than that it's still the slightly Audi R8-esque NSX concept we know and rather like.

By Ollie Kew