Honda open to cost-saving EV alliances
Honda is open to new alliances in the field of electric mobility. With this move, the new CEO of Honda Motor Corporation Toshihiro Mibe wants to reduce costs and make electrification profitable.
“If through an alliance Honda can accomplish early what it should aim to be, then we’d be willing to form an alliance,” Mibe said at a press conference in Tokyo. However, he did not announce details or specific collaborations. Mibe has been chairman of the board at the Japanese carmaker since April. The company will use electrification as an opportunity to review its product range and improve profitability, Mibe said. In addition, digital services are conceivable.
Reuters news agency sees Mibe’s statements as evidence of “pressure on the global auto industry” to share technology to lower vehicle costs to meet demand for cleaner vehicles. Honda is Japan’s second-largest carmaker after Toyota, but it cannot achieve the same economies of scale on its own. Toyota is working with Subaru, among others, on its new eTNGA electric platform.
Honda does not have a Japanese partner, but it does have one from North America. Honda is working with General Motors there and will use the Ultium platform of the US industry giant. For the time being, however, the American company will use the Ultium platform with their own brands before Honda gets a turn. Honda’s Prologue electric SUV is not due to be launched until 2024, and another electric SUV under the Acura brand is planned, but so far both models are only planned for North America.
In the second half of the decade, the Japanese company wants to present their own “e:Architecture” and use it for a series of models. Details on this are not yet known, however.
In April, Honda announced a sharper electrification course worldwide. Accordingly, the Japanese company wants to increase the share of battery-electric and fuel cell cars in their sales in North America and China to 40 per cent by 2030, to 80 per cent by 2035 and to 100 per cent worldwide by 2040.
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