Honda is open to creating new alliances with other automakers in order to share electrification costs and make electric cars profitable in the future, according to its new CEO, Toshihiro Mibe.
As reported by Reuters, Mibe said during a press briefing: “If through an alliance Honda can accomplish early what it should aim to be, then we’d be willing to form an alliance… Building an alliance will become a huge direction in terms of increasing the number of electric vehicles, considering how electrification is not commercially feasible right now”.
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While admitting that EVs are not profitable at the moment, Honda’s CEO expects their prices to drop rapidly in the coming years, using home appliances as a fitting example. Moreover, it is true that large corporations including Stellantis, the Volkswagen Group, Hyundai-Kia, and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi find it easier to absorb the high development costs for new technologies by offering them in a large number of models.
Honda is already collaborating with General Motors for the development of two electric vehicles – the 2024 Honda Prologue and an Acura-branded SUV. The new models will use GM’s Utium batteries while both automakers will benefit from the new e:Architecture platform. Besides electrification, Honda and GM are working together on autonomous systems and hydrogen fuel-cell technology.
Since April 2021 when he was appointed Honda’s new CEO, Toshihiro Mibe has made it clear that he supports electrification. Currently, the only fully electric vehicle of the Japanese automaker is the Honda e supermini, while the majority of its lineup consists of hybrids, especially in Europe where all models will be electrified by 2022. By 2040, Honda will only sell EVs and FCVs worldwide.
In 2020, Honda announced an operating income margin of 13 percent. Its new CEO is confident that 2021 will be more profitable due to the closure of nonviable manufacturing facilities in the UK, Turkey, and Japan.
