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The reduction of NOx in exhaust gas has been a major challenge in diesel engine development. For the NOx reduction issues, a new Lean NOx Catalyst (LNC) aftertreatment system has been developed by Honda. A feature of the LNC system is the method that is used to reduce NOx through an NH₃-Selective Catalytic Reduction (NH₃-SCR). In an LNC system NOx is adsorbed at lean conditions, then converted to NH₃ at rich conditions and subsequently reduced in the next lean phase. In recent years, as the efficiency of the diesel engine has improved, the exhaust gas temperatures have been reduced gradually. Therefore, the aftertreatment system needs to be able to purify NOx at lower temperatures. The development of a new LNC which has a high activity at low temperature has been carried out. For the improvement of the LNC three material improvements were developed. The first of these was the development of a NOx adsorbent which is matching the targeted exhaust gas temperatures.

A practical method of fuel economy measurement has been developed for fuel cell vehicles. The weight method was selected for study from among the various fuel economy measurement methods available for pure hydrogen-type fuel cell vehicles as a direct measurement method that was accurate and could be produced at a comparatively low cost. Solutions were provided to the drawbacks of measurement errors caused by pressure variations in the fuel pipes and lowered hydrogen purity due to air entering the pipes. This development project assisted in fuel economy measurements for the Honda FCX, the world's first market-ready fuel cell vehicle; it also provided measurement system for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tests of the same vehicle, which resulted in the world's first confirmatory test of a fuel cell vehicle.