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
And Testa did it already 20 years ago.
Tesla had 3 fires and gas cars had 400,000 plus in the same amount of time.
Tesla is 10x safer than a gas car!
Why is batteries are now being made at $70/kwh Tesla is using making EVs cost the same or less than an ICE.
EVs perform better and in 2 yrs most will have 12 minute 75% charging and more importantly will have V2G that buying, selling power to the grid on demand can make free charging and a $150-$500 check each month will make ICEs obsolete as will them paying the full price of their pollution going to $6/gal plus.
Thus will lead to a massive dump of unsold ICEs about 2025 making ICEs not profitable, thus the end of new ICE on about 2028.
So any big auto can only sell EVs for a profit in 2024 so limited profitable production to the amount of EVs they can build and more important, their battery supply which needs to be ordered 2 yrs in advance, wil just go bankrupt.
So anyone thinking even 2030 for all EVs best get their act together.