“My sense is that we need to slash the number of cars we develop by about 20 percent,” he said, referring to the various versions developed for a single car model to meet specific needs in different markets around the world, as well as minor facelifts during the life of a car.
“In the end, with so many different specs you lose the essence of what a Honda car should be. It also puts a big burden on (engineers) and it’s inefficient,” he said.
Yamamoto said the reduction efforts were already underway, although he declined to say when they started or when he expected the work to be complete.