In a surprising move, Honda’s UK arm announced today that it has opened a pre-order bank for the upcoming, second generation NSX hybrid sports car. We say surprising as up until now, the Japanese carmaker has, only shown pre-production concept versions of the NSX, which will be marketed under the Acura brand in North America and China.

Honda said it did so because it the NSX “is already receiving unprecedented demand” in the United Kingdom, where potential buyers can place a deposit of £5,000 (equal to $7,650 and €5,850 at the current exchange rates) to be among the first to get behind the wheel of the hybrid model when it arrives in British showrooms in 2015.

“We are really pleased with the interest we’ve already seen for the new NSX,” said Phil Crossman, Managing Director of Honda UK. “We are still two years away from the launch of the car and yet we’ve received over 20 deposits and that’s before we’ve even announced prices or seen the final production car. With this process in place we are confident demand will remain strong and early hand raisers can now visit any Honda dealership in the UK and place a deposit.”

It’s worth mentioning that Honda UK had done the same with the first generation of the NSX which saw 25 pre-orders being taken a year ahead of its UK launch in 1990.

The new model sports a mid-mounted, direct-injected V6 engine paired to Honda’s Sport Hybrid SH-AWD (Super Handling All-Wheel Drive) system with two electric motors, and a dual clutch transmission with a built-in electric motor.

The new NSX will be manufactured at a new Honda group production facility in central Ohio, in the U.S.

Honda did not say if and when it will open the order books in other countries around the world.

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