Unfortunately, some of this impending excitement is already too much for the New Zealand distributor.

Two days ago in Japan came another announcement to cheer performance-hankering Honda-philes; the potential for a new Civic Type R with a turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol making up to 40kW more than the top hot hatches currently served to Kiwis.

Honda is also set to build another NSX supercar, coupling a 3.5-litre V6 with a three-electric motor hybrid system, for a total output of at least 253kW. That's the 'regular' edition. There'll also be a Type R flagship – one that company boss Takanobu Ito promises will set the road on fire.

The fun doesn't stop there. Also being talked about by Honda's president are a baby NSX, and again this week, Ito was telling media in Japan about his intention to broaden the next-generation of the Jazz, due in 2014, to include a funky small sports utility alongside another iteration of the current hatchback.

The white-coats at the Motegi research and development centre are also looking at more hybrids with increasingly sophisticated petrol-electric gubbins and, on some models, plug-in recharging. Pure electrics are also under development; these include the teensy Micro Commuter, powered by a rear-mounted electric motor and a 15kW lithium-ion battery. It'll cover 60kms at up to 80kmh.

All this stuff is good news for a brand that once was the slightly loutish yet highly innovative maverick among Japan's car makers.

And then, in the wake of global recession, it went disturbingly mainstream; dropping most of its sports cars. Insofar as innovation is concerned, the news has mainly been about the latest trick being perfected by Asimo, its performing robot.

Having seen sales slump in many places, Japan and New Zealand included, Honda is now acknowledging, just as Toyota has, that it has been building too much whiteware that under-delivers at an emotional level.

So we can expect more interesting cars. But how many will come here? Honda New Zealand head of marketing Graeme Meyer says the recent product announcements are exciting, yet still sounded cautious about potential for many of the latest offerings when Yahoo! Autos pressed for his views.

Bad news for performance punters: Even though the Auckland-based distributor has – after years of indecision – finally taken a punt on the Civic Euro hatchback, don't expect to see the ultimate development here.

"It probably won't break out of there and, anyway, the potential for that kind car here is very limited," says Meyer.

The next NSX? "There is a small core of people who have interest in that car, perhaps one or two could make it."

More appealing to Honda here are the developments in hybrid tech; he's driven the three-motor system in Japan on a prototype Accord V6 and found it incredible, and while that setup – on which individual electric motors drive each rear wheel – is probably only for the NSX, the two-motor, single motor and plug-in technologies stands a better chance of being seen in volume here. The two-motor setup's first application could well be in the next-generation Accord, coming here next year.

"No decisions have been made but we're look at it (the Accord hybrid)," Meyer said. Meantime, the current Insight and CR-Z will be in line to go to the new single-motor system, though exactly when that happens is not clear.

One certainty for our market, here around February, is the hybrid edition of the Jazz hatchback, the first rival for the 1.5-litre Prius C which has snatched a significant share of Toyota's hybrid sales.

The new model is powered by a 1.3-litre petrol engine teamed to an electric motor, with a combined power output of 75kW and 199Nm. Power is sent to the front wheels via a CVT automatic transmission, and the car has regenerative brakes which gather lost kinetic energy to recharge the car’s batteries. Fuel use for the Jazz Hybrid is just 4.5 litres per 100km, and the company claims the city car can travel as much as 850 kilometres on a full tank of fuel.

While pricing is still being resolved, Honda's intention was to be competitive with the Toyota rival. Was there potential to undercut the baby Prius, which kicks off at $30,990? Meyer laughed that one off, "if I said that there was then Toyota would just drop their prices tomorrow."

The hybrid model could very well be the last significant development of the current Jazz, before the next-generation of the supermini comes out in 2014. Ito has confirmed that the next Jazz will include SUV and sedan versions as the model becomes a true global car. Details of the Jazz SUV remain scarce, though Ito has described it as a 'younger brother to the CR-V.'

Meantime while Meyer was unable to say how many vehicles Honda NZ expects to move this year, he says the brand has not missed out on the national 20 percent year-on-year lift in new vehicle sales and has fully recovered from the impact of the Japanese tsunami and Thailand floods, both of which affected production last year.