Honda Motor Co said it is open to altering its electrification road map if demand for pure battery cars continues to wane, a sign the Japanese automaker may ultimately join international peers in walking back electric vehicle (EV) targets. 

“There’s enough room to adjust the timeline of establishing EV factories globally and change our strategy should things move in an unexpected direction,” chief executive officer Toshihiro Mibe told investors at Honda’s technology day last week. That could include delaying setting up some battery production lines, he said.

Automakers worldwide have been dialling back their EV ambitions, as consumers cool on battery-powered car purchases, with affordability, a lack of charging infrastructure and range anxiety all key concerns. Volvo Car AB last month abandoned its target of selling only fully electric cars by the end of this decade, while Toyota Motor Corp is delaying the start of production of its first US-made EV until 2026.

Honda has a goal of only selling EVs by 2040. Mibe kept that unchanged for now, explaining away the current stagnation in EV sales as a “short-term headwind”. 

In the first half, Honda sold about 13,000 EVs, or around 0.7% of its overall passenger car sales. It has 11 EV models globally, including the X-NV and e:NP1 in China, and the Prologue in the US and Canada. Those models include the Honda e, which the company has stopped manufacturing but still sells from remaining stock.

Battery EVs are still the “best solution” for light trucks and sport utility vehicles, Mibe said at last Wednesday’s event to showcase the company’s latest in software and hardware technology.

Honda in May pledged to invest ¥10 trillion (US$67.70 billion or RM288.99 billion) on its electrification strategy through fiscal 2031, covering areas including software, research and development, and establishing supply chains in key markets like the US, Canada and Japan.

Its long-awaited electric van, the N-VAN e, is set to go on sale in Japan on Thursday, and the automaker expects to launch premium EVs under its Honda 0 series in markets such as North America from 2026. A new model under the 0 series will also be unveiled at next year’s CES technology conference in Las Vegas, Honda said.

Walking the media and investors through its technology plans, Honda also talked about new software features that will form part of the 0 series, including automatic unlocking of a car’s doors using face recognition technology, an audio feature that can provide information about the geographic area as the car is being driven, and enhanced advanced driver assistance systems.

Mibe said these features will be used exclusively in Honda’s cars, and are separate from the carmaker’s collaboration with Nissan Motor Co on technology for so-called software-defined vehicles.

As for hardware, Honda plans to apply a megacasting technique to the manufacture of battery cases for Honda 0 series at its Ohio plant and start using gigacasting to manufacture cars’ chassis from 2028.

The company has also developed compact e-Axle systems, which combine motors and inverters, to make EVs more spacious, it said. It will also apply a new welding technology, which helps to make car frames lighter. 

  - Bloomberg