Honda's sporty take on low emissions motoring

One of the big attention grabbers at the 2008 British International Motor Show is Honda’s low-emission sportscar dubbed OSM (for Open Study Model). The open top two seater design out of the company's R&D facility in Offenbach, Germany, is being shown alongside the CR-Z sports hybrid which was unveiled at Tokyo last year and the Honda FCX Clarity which is being produced in Japan and available in the US under a lease plan. While a version of the CR-Z has been confirmed for production, there are no plans to bring the OSM online anytime soon.

There is no detail on exactly how the car would achieve its low-emissions claim, with the emphasis on showing that green cars can also be sexy according to Andreas Sittel, Project Leader for OSM: “There is no reason why a car that’s more environmentally friendly can’t look great too – and be sporty and fun to drive.” On this point we have to agree - the balanced design matches smoothly sculpted exterior lines with a minimalist interior, blending the two with subtle features like the extended door panels that create a border for the instrument panel and the merging of the cabin space and the rear body panel.

The lighting layout also strengthens the fluid design language - the headlights sweep back to almost touch the wheel arches and a continuous red tail light stretches across the rear with a second, smaller lamp sitting in a central position above the Honda badge.

The exterior color is a a one-off paint called Mystic Pearl and the blue and white interior theme featuring leather trim on both colors is also reflected in the small instrumentation panel, with information presented in bright blue on a black background. Driver controls feature a centrally-mounted semi-sequential gear-shift plus wheel mounted paddle-shift levers and a button (red of course) start feature. See the gallery for more images of the OSM.