The collaborations with General Motors and Sony can be viewed as a bridge to the moment when Honda develops its own next-generation electric vehicle platforms and advanced solid-state battery technologies. Cooperating allows Honda to save time by gaining faster access to product for sale and assistance with technology.
Mibe stated that the new endeavour with Sony will be distinct from the Honda brand and the company’s present plan for electric vehicles. The proposal to share an electric vehicle platform with General Motors for the North American market, for example, will go as planned and is critical as a mass market push, he said.
Honda and General Motors’ vehicles, which will mostly be tiny crossovers, will be built on a new global electric architecture powered by GM’s Ultium battery technology and will use jointly developed advanced battery technology. Plans to sell millions might propel the pair to the top of the worldwide EV market.
The businesses have a North American collaboration dating all the way back to 2020, under which GM pledged to assist Honda in developing electric vehicles based on its current Ultium battery platform. This partnership is already on schedule to deliver two crossovers in 2024: the Honda Prologue and an Acura-branded electric vehicle.
Elimination of ICE
Mibe intends to phase out Honda’s illustrious internal combustion engines by 2040, transforming the corporation into a carbon-neutral energy and mobility provider.
In the second half of the 2020s, Honda plans to introduce its own specialised EV platform, dubbed e:Architecture, as well as solid-state batteries.
Mibe refers to solid-state batteries as a “game-changer,” and Honda intends to incorporate them into future vehicles around that time. It has already begun relocating engineers from the company’s internal combustion engine division to the battery division.
Honda has stated that it intends to develop a solid-state battery pilot line this year.
Mibe had stated in an interview with Automotive News last October that the electrification push will take “billions and billions of dollars in investment.”
Greater ambitions
Apart from electrifying its automotive lineup, Honda is undergoing a broader transformation.
It is developing autonomous vehicles as part of a mobility-as-a-service industry, in collaboration with General Motors’ Cruise. Honda announced in September that it will enter the electric vertical take-off and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft market with the goal of commercialising the craft by 2030 and then breaking the earth’s bonds entirely by developing small, reusable rockets capable of launching satellites into low-earth orbit.
Honda also stated last October that their prototype rocket had already been subjected to combustion testing.
Another new priority area will be avatar robots — machines with arms, hands, and fingers that may “make virtual mobility conceivable” by motion-capturing real human movement.
“Existing automotive OEMs are not always at the forefront of such innovation,” Mibe explained. “I sense a shift in emphasis toward new players from diverse industries and startups that embark on risks without fear of failure.”
“In this reality,” Mibe continued, “Honda will not simply stand by and watch. We want to be the ones who take the initiative to effect change.”