Like Volkswagen, Toyota, Jaguar and other big names in auto-manufacturing, Honda is making moves away from fossil fuels and internal combustion engines, declaring a new strategy to sell only electric vehicles in major markets by 2040. This will start with vehicles built on a new EV architecture later this decade, and also incorporates some lofty ambitions around road safety.
Honda's new commitment to electrification was announced by CEO Toshihiro Mibe on Friday, and forms part of the company's wider goal of achieving carbon neutrality across its entire operation by 2050.
In the second half of the 2020s, the company plans to launch a new lineup of electric vehicles based on an entirely new platform it calls e:Architecture. These battery electric-vehicles will be introduced in North America first and other markets thereafter, and will add to the pair of large EVs the company is developing together with GM, which it plans to introduce in 2024.
Honda and GM also teamed up on hydrogen fuel cell technology back in 2017, and this also forms a key part of the new electrification strategy. The company hopes that fuel cell and battery-electric vehicles can combine to make up 40 percent of its sales in "all major markets of electrification" by 2030, 85 percent by 2035, and then 100 percent globally by 2040.
On top of this, Honda says it will strive for zero road fatalities involving its cars and motorbikes by 2050. It hopes improvements to the intelligence of its driver-assist technologies in combination with educational programs around road safety can help reduce the road toll involving its vehicles.
The Japanese automaker also plans to invest five trillion yen (around US$46 billion) into research and development around these safety and environmental initiatives over the next six years.
Source: Honda
