Honda to Sell Only EVs by 2040
New Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe announced today that his company wants 100 percent of its vehicle sales to be EVs by 2040, an aggressive goal that comes across as ambitious compared to that of other manufacturers. (In the United States, that is; in Europe, Honda is targeting all-EV sales by 2025.)
To reach its goal, Honda will launch a series of electric models based on a new “e:Architecture” platform, starting in the second half of the 2020s. Honda hopes that fully electric vehicles — including battery-electrics and fuel-cell electrics — will account for 30 percent of its sales by 2030, and 80 percent by 2035.
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The first two Honda EVs will arrive for the 2024 model year. One will get the Honda badge while the other will be an Acura. The company’s upcoming e:Architecture won’t quite be ready by then, though. Instead, both EVs will be built using General Motors’ Ultium battery platform.
Mibe also announced that Honda will launch extensive initiatives to research and develop solid-state batteries, something rival automaker Toyota has been doing for a few years. Honda expects to put a solid-state battery to use in a production vehicle before the end of the decade.
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The automaker was a little less forthcoming about its plans for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. While it said the new EVs would roll out in the North American market first, it had little to say about FCVs beyond trying to finally make the world understand that hydrogen is totally worth it.
Finally, almost as a footnote, Honda outlined yet another goal: that of zero automobile and motorcycle collision fatalities, globally, by 2050. This might be an even more ambitious target than selling only EVs by 2040, but Honda is confident that its advances in driver-assistance and safety technologies can make it happen.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.