DE5 will be exported to Japan

[ElpacoSV]

Hey guys,

Apparently the DE5 will be exported to Japan! I see this as food news since JDM will must likely develop exterior products for the DE5 (my hopes).

What do you think?

Source: @8:51min

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[NoelPR]

Good news, maybe the ITS will make it into GT7.

 

[slowcountry]

Good news, maybe the ITS will make it into GT7.

saw this earlier, looks like it's in forza

 

[Braun]

I didn't watch the video because I can't stand Kirk's voice and lazy click-along videos, but I highly doubt the DE5 will make it to Japan. But if it did it would be great for aftermarket parts potential!

 

[Underdog]

I wonder if they would have to tone down the exhaust like they did with the FL5. That would be a shame.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

I wonder if they would have to tone down the exhaust like they did with the FL5. That would be a shame.

They would have to do a lot more than that and then recertify everything crash test and emissions related.

At a minimum, dash reprogram, HUD reprogram, headlights, taillights, bumper shape, vin and patterns of all labeling, and the exhaust like mentioned. Not sure what else would have to change but I'm sure there's more. Unless Honda is really sitting on a pile of cash and looking for fun, I don't think it comes even close to making financial or timeline sense for a super low volume car like this.

Sidenote, Omg the guy in the video is so slow. Had to watch at 2x speed just to stay awake .

 

[VtecBuddy]

They would have to do a lot more than that and then recertify everything crash test and emissions related.

At a minimum, dash reprogram, HUD reprogram, headlights, taillights, bumper shape, vin and patterns of all labeling, and the exhaust like mentioned. Not sure what else would have to change but I'm sure there's more. Unless Honda is really sitting on a pile of cash and looking for fun, I don't think it comes even close to making financial or timeline sense for a super low volume car like this.

Sidenote, Omg the guy in the video is so slow. Had to watch at 2x speed just to stay awake .

I think Honda themselves announced at an event that they would import the DE5 to Japan if there was enough demand. As for regulations, maybe there’s exceptions if it’s low enough volume?

 

[Victorofhavoc]

I think Honda themselves announced at an event that they would import the DE5 to Japan if there was enough demand. As for regulations, maybe there’s exceptions if it’s low enough volume?

Yeah, they did do it with the nsx in the 90s, but that was also at a time where they had real money and flaunting it was a good marketing tactic. Granted then the nsx became a ROW car and not just a Japan car I believe.

Not sure on exceptions... I know certain countries have rules around low volume and regulation like us, but not sure what those rules look like in Japan. The US is basically regulation free compared to many other countries. That's a great point though, they might be able to get away with something like <200 cars per year. I bet they'd still have to redo emissions, safety, lighting, and noise compliance at the least. The heavy us labor cost and shipping would add to the price. Tariffs and other related import/export costs would also bump it up.

I would suspect that with 2-500 cars per year (being hyper optimistic here that they could even hit that in Japan) would likely put the car into a $40-80k range premium OVER current us cost. That makes it compete directly with caymans and 911s in that market with zero mechanical advantage over the existing type r.

It might be more likely they would rebody the type r in Japan in some way and just build it there. US labor cost is too extreme for us to be a manufacturing country.

All speculation on my end... I'm just not sure I see the value proposition for them, but who knows!

 

[optronix]

Yeah this makes zero sense. Other than just a pure import situation- like a dude on the Civic forum recently visited Japan and snapped a few pics of a guy with a TLX Type S. For whatever reason someone wanted it enough to import it, but it's not like they have a go-to-market strategy for something like that.

Don't get your hopes up for JDM DE5 parts just yet.

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