Source: Gasgoo Author: Ramy
Text
According to Reuters, on January 9th, Japanese automaker Honda announced that it plans to launch a new electric vehicle series starting from 2026 to catch up with the electrification speed of global competitors.
Reuters pointed out that Honda has made slow progress in increasing sales of electric vehicles, not only lagging behind European and American competitors such as General Motors and Volkswagen, but also facing challenges from new competitors such as BYD.
Image source: Honda
At this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show, Honda unveiled the “Honda 0 Series” and two concept cars in the series, hoping to help the company achieve its goal of having all new cars be electric or fuel-cell vehicles by 2040.
Saloon；Image source: Honda
Last December, Honda executives had said at a press conference in Tokyo that the company was aiming to launch the first models in its new range by 2026. The range would start in the North American market and then be rolled out globally. However, at the conference, Honda executives did not reveal more details such as pricing, number of models, and sales expectations. Honda also revealed that its new electric car series will feature an improved brand logo, boasting a slanted and sleeker design than the current brand logo.
Space-Hub; Image source: Honda
One of the concepts Honda showed off at CES was the Saloon, a sedan that seats four to five passengers. Honda executives at a press conference in Tokyo had said that the production car would likely look very similar to the concept, although some of the design may be changed. The other concept car is the Space-Hub, which is expected to seat six to seven people.
According to data from Honda, in the first nine months of 2023, the company’s global car sales were approximately 2.8 million units, with electric vehicle sales accounting for less than 0.5%, approximately 11000 units. Among them, 10400 electric vehicles (accounting for 93%) are sold in the Chinese market, while there is no sales of electric vehicles in the North American market.
Honda has previously said it plans to produce 2 million electric vehicles a year globally by 2030, and has set a goal of launching 30 all-electric models by 2030.
In addition, people familiar with the Canadian government revealed this week that Canadian officials will meet with representatives of Honda Motors. Previously, there were news reports that Honda was considering investing nearly 2 trillion yen (13.9 billion US dollars) to build an electric vehicle factory in Canada. On January 9th, Nikkei reported, citing Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe, that Honda “has the possibility of building a factory in Canada.”
