- Honda laid out its plans to achieve 100% EV/FCEV vehicles by 2040.
- Look for the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX EVs next year, followed by a “mid- to large-size EV model” in 2025 in the U.S. Last year Honda said there will be three or four “fun” electric motorcycles in the U.S. by 2025. Other global markets will get cool cars that we won’t.
- No direct mention was made of the Sony Afeela car.
Almost every carmaker in the world is ahead of Honda when it comes to electric vehicles. Automakers from Hyundai to BMW to Mercedes-Benz to Ford have full battery-electric vehicles of one form or another in showrooms. While Honda may still be behind the competition when it comes to EVs, it does have a zero-emissions plan. It reiterated details of that plan, and updated others, in a business briefing from Japan on April 26. Many elements of it were laid out last year, but there were some new specifics disclosed.
Both the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX electric vehicles being codeveloped with General Motors will go on sale next year. Those will ride on GM’s Ultium battery-electric platform. Honda has used technology of other carmakers in the past—remember the Isuzu partnership to build SUVs? (Who can forget those original Troopers?) Honda said in the briefing that it will “...further strengthen its alliance with GM. In addition to co-developing a series of affordable electric vehicles, which will go on sale in 2027 and beyond, the two companies will continue exploring a broad range of collaboration which will combine the respective strengths of the two companies and increase competitiveness in the areas of core electrification components.”
The Acura Precision EV Concept debuted at The Quail 2022. Elements of it will be seen in the coming ZDX.
Honda will switch to its own electric and electronic (E&E) architecture for a “mid- to large-size EV model” in 2025, though no name was released for that model. The E&E architecture is based on Honda’s original dedicated-EV platform.
“The new model coming in 2025 is the first of Honda’s new BEVs that will feature our proprietary e:Architecture EV platform,” a spokesman said. “In prior announcements, we’d targeted to begin introducing e:Architecture models in 2026. So the timing has been pulled forward of prior commitments.
“E&E architecture is short for Electric & Electronic, which references the portion of Honda’s e:Architecture EV platform that facilitates in-vehicle software and the UX/digital services connectivity, which will be updatable via OTA throughout the product’s life. Connectivity and digital services will be an increasing part of our business moving forward, and this new model is an important part of that direction.”
No mention was made in the Business Briefing of the coming Sony car that was to be a joint venture between Honda and the electronics giant. Sony and Honda had revealed a car at CES called Afeela.
Honda still hasn’t said nor shown which electric motorcycles will come to the U.S., but here are three silhouettes that might be relevant.
Honda reiterated its plan to introduce 10 or more electric motorcycle models globally by 2025. The briefing did not specify which of those 10 e-motorcycles will be coming to the U.S., but when it announced them last September, Honda said we would get “three or four fun models.” So look for those soon.
Other markets will get a much greater variety of electric vehicles, both two- and four-wheeled. Honda will launch the EM1 e: electric scooter equipped with a Honda Mobile Power Pack e: swappable battery in Japan, Europe, and Indonesia by the end of this year, while a range of future models equipped with “mobile power sources other than swappable batteries” is being explored, Honda said.
China will get the sleek e:NS2 and e:NP2 crossovers, displayed at the Shanghai auto show last week, by early next year. Then before the end of 2024, mass production models based on the sharply angular e:N SUV xù concept, also debuted in Shanghai, will go on sale there, but not here.
The electric version of the ultra-cute Honda N-VAN kei-class vehicle is one of the cool EVs we will not get here in the U.S. Damn those crumple zones!
The Japan market will get the cute, kei-class electric N-VAN early next year, as well as an all-electric version of the also-cute, N360-styled N-ONE electric car in 2025. Then, in 2026, two small-size EV models, one of which will be an SUV, will go on sale in Japan.
Honda will also work with existing EV charging networks to bring EV charging to its customers, though it didn’t get into too many details, nor announce any partnerships for that. It will also work with various partners around the world to source everything from lithium to computer chips to ensure it has enough stuff to build all these EVs.
Three U.S. production facilities will build electric vehicles.
“Preparing for the upcoming start of full-fledged EV production, Honda will re-tool three existing Honda plants in Ohio, in the U.S. (two auto plants, the Marysville Auto Plant and East Liberty Auto Plant, and one automobile powertrain plant, the Anna Engine Plant) to establish highly-efficient and highly-flexible production lines and position these plants as Honda’s EV Hub for production in North America.”
The electrification of Honda will be huge.
“For Honda to continue to be viewed as a company society wants to exist in the midst of the period of the ‘once in a hundred years transformation’ of the industry, Honda management determined that the company needs to re-clarify the ‘raison d’etre’ of Honda, what the company really wants to achieve, as well as the ‘value proposition’ of Honda, which exists beyond its business strategies, such as electrification and digitalization.”
How far will it go? It’ll drop its “Power of Dreams” tagline and replace it with a new tagline, and three key words:
- How we move you.
The creation of mobility through the dreams of each and every Honda associate will “move” people physically and also “move” people’s hearts, Honda said. - Create, Transcend, Augment
Driven by dreams and the intrinsic motivation of each and every person working at Honda, the company will create “the mobility Honda dreams of” to embody the essential value of all mobility products and services – to enable people to transcend the constraints of time and place, and to augment their every possibility. Through the creation of the mobility Honda dreams of, Honda will become “The Power of Dreams” of more and more people. That is how we will move people and society forward.
The goal is a 100% EV/FCEV lineup by 2040, though there were no specifics about any fuel-cell vehicles in the Briefing. But, while it may have been slow to adapt to the EV market, as it has been in previous big changes in the industry, it is definitely on the way this time.
Mark Vaughn
Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products and everyone who ever worked there. This was his introduction to objective automotive criticism. He started writing for City News Service in Los Angeles, then moved to Europe and became editor of a car magazine called, creatively, Auto. He decided Auto should cover Formula 1, sports prototypes and touring cars—no one stopped him! From there he interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show and has been with us ever since.
