Honda Motor Co. plans to foray into the electric vehicle market by spending $40 billion (5 trillion yen) over the next decade. The Japanese maker announced its moves with concrete plans for the following generation plans.
Honda’s plan to enter EVs segment
As per Bloomberg News, Honda will launch 30 Electric Vehicle models by 2030 with a target of producing two million-plus vehicles in a year. The second-largest automaker in Japan, Honda, will line up a demonstration production of the battery models to start commercial production in 2024.
In June last year, Honda became the first Japanese automaker to publicly declare that it would phase out its gasoline-driven cars by 2040 completely. Since then, the new CEO, Toshihiro Mibe, has pushed to speed up the company’s drive into the competitive electric segment.
This offensive has been party due to the doubling down of the EV market in China.
In October, Honda had announced that it would launch 10 EVs of its “e: N Series” in the next five years in Japan, with two of the models in the series to be sold in these years. It also pledged that all its models introduced in China after 2030 would be electric, and the company has announced plans to set up dedicated EV plants in the country.
Another push by CEO Mibe is to change Honda’s long-standing position in going alone strategy in developing and selling Electric vehicles. In his briefing in February last year after getting promoted to the top role, Mibe had hinted that he would accelerate the project by using external insights and alliances.
Last month, Honda announced its joint venture with Sony Group Corp. for making EVs that will go on sale in 2025. The two Japanese giants will have the manufacturing prowess of Honda and Sony’s sensor and entertainment technology to form a winning combination in an already crowded market.
Honda and General Motors have expanded their existing toe-ups to develop EV Batteries jointly. The two companies plan to introduce their first affordable EV model below $ 30,000 in North America in 2027.
Honda, which sources its Ultium batteries from General Motors, said it was exploring possibilities of a joint venture with another company to make batteries.
