Honda CEO invests $40 billion towards goal of fully electric fleet

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe has revealed a $40 billion investment towards making 40% of Honda’s fleet electric by 2030.

The investment will also go towards Mibe’s promise for Honda to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and a phase-out of gasoline-powered car sales by 2040.

The $40 billion, or five trillion yen, investment means the Japanese car giant could have a total of 30 new electric vehicle models launched by 2030, with a production volume of more than two million vehicles per year.

“We can no longer envision the future by drawing a straight line forward from our autos business as it exists today,” the CEO said in an interview with Bloomberg. “Within this broad-scope image, we’re making significant progress.”

Last month Honda revealed a partnership with tech giant Sony Group, which Mibe says will help the company create new sources of value for its cars that it couldn’t on its own. Together, they aim to develop EVs that will go on sale in 2025.

On top of that, Honda and General Motors (GM) have extended their existing partnership which includes plans to develop affordable EVs in major global markets. Their first model for North America was announced only last week with a price of less than $30,000 and will be out in 2027.

According to Mibe, the GM partnership means better cost savings brought by their combined production capacity. The “globally significant volume,” they have together “will have a huge impact on costs,” said Mibe. Together, GM and Honda are also aiming to bring down EV costs to be even with gasoline-powered cars.

However, Mibe says that Honda is still seeking out new partnerships in order to keep up with “constantly evolving” EV and battery technologies.

Honda, although currently sourcing Ultium batteries from GM, is exploring a possible new joint venture with another company for battery production and is looking to source batteries for mini EVs in Japan from US-based battery manufacturer Envision AESC.

Honda itself is starting a trial production of solid-state batteries in 2024 and is also discussing next-generation batteries with GM.