According to the latest news from Honda China, Honda unveiled its latest move in the field of pure electric vehicles on April 12.
According to reports, in order to achieve the goal of carbon neutralization through all-field products and corporate activities in 2050, Honda is committed to promoting carbon neutralization of product power sources in various fields. From the existing organizational structure divided by motorcycle, automobile and power products, the company has separated "electric products and services, batteries, energy, mobile power packs and hydrogen fuel" with future core competitiveness. and the associated "software and networking areas", combine them into one, and set up a new organization "Business Development headquarters".
Honda believes that an important issue in the era of pure electric vehicles is global battery procurement, and at this stage, the company is ensuring stable procurement in every region by strengthening external partnerships for liquid lithium-ion batteries: in North America, it purchases "Ultium platform" batteries from General Motors, while the company is also studying the establishment of a battery production joint venture. In China, cooperation with the Ningde era is further strengthened; in Japan, batteries are purchased from Vision Power for light electric vehicles.
In the second half of the 2020s, Honda will accelerate the independent research and development of a new generation of batteries, and plans to invest about 43 billion yen to build a demonstration production line for the all-solid-state battery currently under development, which will be launched in the spring of 2024. When completed and put into production, it is planned to be used in models launched in the second half of the 2020s.
In terms of pure electric vehicle launch, Honda plans to launch products according to the market characteristics of major regions from now to the second half of the 2020s: in North America, two medium and large pure electric vehicles jointly developed with General Motors (Honda brand: new SUV "Prologue" and Acura brand: SUV model) will be launched in 2024; in China, 10 pure electric vehicles will be launched by 2027. In Japan, commercial light electric vehicles priced at about 1 million yen will be launched in the first half of 2024, followed by plans to launch individual light electric vehicles and SUV pure electric vehicles in due course.
In the second half of the 2020s, Honda will enter the popularization period of pure electric vehicles and will launch the highest quality electric vehicles all over the world. Specifically, Honda will launch products using "Hondae:Architecture" from 2026, which is a dedicated platform for pure electric vehicles that combines software and hardware platforms. At the same time, through a partnership with GM, the company will launch commercial Volkswagen models in North America after 2027 that are as competitive as traditional fuel cars in terms of cost and mileage. Through these measures, Honda plans to launch 30 models of electric vehicles worldwide from light commercial to flagship by 2030, with an annual production capacity of more than 2 million vehicles.
In terms of the expansion of the production system of pure electric vehicles, Honda plans to build a dedicated production line for pure electric vehicles in North America, based on Wuhan, China, and then in Guangzhou, China.
To complete the plan, Honda plans to spend 8 trillion yen ($64 billion) on research and development over the next decade, including about 5 trillion yen ($40 billion) in electrification and software to speed up the electrification process.
Notably, Honda issued a total of $2.75 billion in green bonds in March. The money will be used to develop and produce zero-carbon vehicles, such as pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles, to further accelerate the realization of an "environmentally load-free society".
