Honda is aiming to expand its European market footprint by producing “unique” cars that “touch the sweet spot” for customers and major on engineering supremacy.

The Japanese company sold just 72,000 cars in Europe last year - down from a record 313,000 sales in the region as recently as 2007, putting it roughly level with compatriot luxury brand Lexus.

Mazda and Suzuki each more than doubled that figure in the same period, while even struggling Nissan clocked nearly 300,000 sales and Toyota nudged 900,000. 

Honda’s European president, Hans De Jaeger, admitted to Autocar that the brand is “not a big player” in the region, but he outlined a plan to grow volumes in a “sustainable and healthy way” by creating cars that are tailored more specifically to customers' demands and stand out for being unique and putting a “smile” on their faces.

De Jaeger was speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where Honda staged a public debut for the Prelude HRC concept - a race-inspired reworking of its new hybrid sports coupé with performance enhancements engineered by its motorsport division.

While he didn't confirm any firm plan to put the hot coupé into production, De Jaeger pitched the concept as emblematic of Honda’s plan to return to its roots as a brand that “stands for engineering dreams and gives products beyond customers’ expectations”.

Honda isn't aiming to “double or triple” its regional footprint but rather slowly increase its market share in the EU, the UK and Turkey, which collectively account for around 100,000 sales per year - and De Jaeger believes “the most important” pillar of this strategy is to “bring a product which touches the sweet spot for our customers”.

He said the HRC show car, and indeed the standard Prelude on which it's based, show that “we really want to bring that kind of product” - and pointed also to the new Super-N city car as an example of how Honda will buck mainstream trends to carve out anew a distinct brand positioning in Europe.

Reaction to the hot little EV has been “really, really positive”, De Jaeger said, because it embodies “the kind of quirky joy” that Honda cars (such as the 1980s City Turbo II that inspired the Super-N) were historically known for. 

“You have a smile on your face when you drive the car, but it’s also very practical, and that’s exactly what we want to do: bring a product which is a little bit more unique into the market,” he said.

In this context, he explained, Honda is “lucky that we are smaller” than rivals, because “if you enter into the battleground of mainstream models, it’s a very difficult market. We see that with a lot of manufacturers.”

De Jaeger didn’t go so far as to suggest Honda would bow out of the highly competitive C-segment, in which it fields the Civic hatchback and CR-V and HR-V crossovers, but said: “The key point for us is the USP of our product and how we can explain to our customers about that,”

This is particularly important, De Jaeger added, in the context of new entrants taking a rapidly increasing share of the European car market at the expense of legacy brands’.

“We have to admit that Chinese competition is very severe and we have to adapt - but also we have to bring products which customers want," he said.

He highlighted that Honda already has a “very high” customer retention rate, so the Super-N’s role is primarily one of conquest, as “the entry model for young people to understand what Honda stands for”.

De Jaeger also emphasised that Honda is “a little bit atypical” in terms of its car business being just one strand of a global empire that also produces motorcycles, power tools, garden equipment, marine motors and more. This means the brand is successful and well known far outside the automotive market and can investigate “how we can bring these customers also towards the automobile business or vice versa”.

Indeed, Honda’s European car business is a relative minnow in volume terms compared with its colossal motorcycle operation, which commands a 21% share of the European market and shifts 450,000 bikes across the region each year.

“So in terms of contactable customers, we have a very different business,” said De Jaeger.

He said that while this does not necessarily mean coaxing CBR 1000 RR Fireblade owners into CR-Vs, there “is a window of opportunity where we can further strengthen our brand image” on the car market.

“Our brand perception for motorcycles is very strong and even stronger for marine and power products," he continued, 'but for cars the ambition is we want to have people understand what Honda stands for.”

Asked if that emphasis on the unique attributes of Honda’s cars extends to adopting the same ‘no more boring cars’ mantra of Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda, Jaeger said: “Yes. Certainly with a small player like us, the mainstream is a very competitive environment, and we have to look towards the opportunities where we can enter into the market and really focus on customers who think Honda brings added value.”