Honda changes course and says it will build its own electric vehicles

While General Motors will build Honda’s first two all-electric vehicles for North America, the Japanese automaker plans to change course and produce its own vehicles later this decade.

Company officials say they are developing their own EV architecture, and after two GM-made EVs go on sale in 2024, Honda will begin building its own EV architecture.

“It is absolutely our intention to manufacture in our plants,” said Dave Gardner, Executive Vice President of Honda of America, adding that Honda has developed expertise in battery manufacturing by building gas-electric hybrids. “We definitely intend to use that resource.”

Honda and GM have been partners in hydrogen fuel cells and electric vehicles. Earlier this year, they announced that GM would build one Honda SUV and one Acura SUV using the Ultium brand electric vehicle architecture and battery system. The company said the Honda SUV will be called the Prologue and that both SUVs will have bodies, interiors and handling designed by Honda.

But after those two, Honda is planning its own production for most of a range of electric vehicles, though it hasn’t determined whether it will use GM components.

Gardner says sales forecasts for the Prologue are between 40,000 and 150,000 a year, but he didn’t say when those numbers would be reached.

In April, the company said it plans to phase out all of its gasoline-powered vehicles in North America by 2040, making it the latest major automaker to aim for carbon neutrality. Honda wants 40% of North American car sales to be battery-powered or fuel-cell-powered by 2030, and battery-powered or hydrogen-powered 80% of all cars sold by 2035.

Honda initially planned to meet stricter government fuel economy standards and add pollution from hybrids to improve internal combustion engines. But regulatory measures around the world to combat climate change, including proposals from US President Joe Biden, have moved the company more toward electric vehicles, Gardner said.

Battery-electric vehicles accounted for less than 2% of U.S. new vehicle sales last year, but analysts predict massive growth as automakers roll out new models. The consultancy LMC Automotive expects almost 359,000 to be sold this year, exceeding 1 million in 2023 and more than 4 million in 2030. Yet that is about a quarter of the annual sales of new vehicles.