Honda has announced its strategic blueprint for electrification today. The company is expected to invest US$40 billion for the release of 30 EV models throughout the next several years, before attaining 100% electrification by 2040.
Japanese automotive manufacturers have dragged on long enough in their progress of electrification. Honda now finally decided to devote itself in EVs by announcing a total investment of JPY5 trillion (approx. NT$1.2 trillion) that would hopefully facilitate a release of 30 BEVs prior to 2030, as well as establishing the target of comprehensive electrification by 2040.
Not only triumphs in the quantity of models, Honda will also actuate in the BEV market under an annual capacity of two million units, and the company, at the same time, is constructing a pilot production line that is used to manufacture solid-state batteries, with production commencing in 2024.
Honda, second largest automotive manufacturer in Japan, has been constantly accelerating its pace of electrification since announcing last year to stop selling fossil-fuel vehicles in 2040. The company is heavily engaged in China, where the new Honda e:N brand collaborated with Dongfeng Motor and SAIC will be releasing ten BEVs within the next five years.
All Honda vehicles sold in the Chinese market after 2030 will only be available in battery electric variation.
Toshihiro Mibe, newly appointed CEO of Honda, has boldly forfeited the company’s streamline development strategy from the past, and adopted the more pragmatic multi-party alliance approach, when preparing to tackle the challenging EV era. “Time is the essence of this competition”, said Mibe.
The most anticipating partnership has to be the collaboration between Honda and Sony, which is bound to yield a certain level of pressure for Toyota. On the other hand, Honda has decided to work with General Motors (GM) for the US market, where the former has thus obtained GM’s Ultium battery technology, aside from a cooperation in automotive manufacturing technology. Honda is currently seeking for an adequate battery supplying partner to form a joint venture that would be used to produce automotive lithium batteries.
Albeit Taiwan’s apathetic attitude towards EVs, Japanese automotive manufacturers, who were advantageous in the markets of the US, China, Europe, and ASEAN in the past, may miss out on the key timing for transformation as these regions fully propel low carbon transportation. If that happens, leaders who had dominated for the past decades are likely to be replaced as a result.
(Cover photo source: Honda)