EV Laggard Honda Latest to Bail on EV Plans

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We’ve seen it from a handful of automakers now. With Donald Trump and Republicans killing EV-friendly policies, they’ve decided to write off billions of dollars of EV investment (perhaps with a bunch of other things stuffed in there) and kill EV plans — whether that be new EV production lines or even whole models. Unsurprisingly, Honda, which has been one of the biggest laggards in the EV transition, is now doing the same.

The United States is a big market for Honda, and after years of delay, its EV model for the market was basically just developed by GM. The Japanese market is a major EV laggard as well and very insulated, with buyers heavily favoring Japanese brands, so there hasn’t been much incentive to get bullish on EVs there.

The news this week is that Honda is canceling three EV models it had planned for the North American market. Financially, it is expecting to write off up to ¥2.5 trillion ($15.7 billion) of EV investments as it shifts back to a very lame, essentially anti-EV strategy.

“Just last month Honda had warned of surging expenses related to its EV business, but the latest announcement lays bare the immense cost of being caught out by slowing demand for new-energy cars. Its estimate puts it alongside Stellantis NV, which is taking more than €22 billion ($25 billion) in charges mainly linked to reversing course in its EV strategy, and Ford Motor’s $19.5 billion hit from its overhaul,” the japan times writes.

Honda also blames the tariff war initiated by Donald Trump as a key factor hurting its business, particularly in North America. Overall, “Honda forecasts losses for the fiscal year ending March will be between ¥270 billion and ¥570 billion.” That’s $1.69 billion to $3.57 billion.

Ironically, another big area of loss for Honda is China, where it has become much less competitive in a quickly electrifying market. So, it has lost a lot of business in China from being an EV laggard, but it is determined to remain an EV laggard elsewhere, cancel big EV plans, and assume/hope that the world won’t rapidly electrify in coming years as the technology continues to improve and costs continue to come down. I’ll be honest, I’ve been hugely disappointed with Honda’s approach to the EV transition for a decade, so I’m not surprised by this shift. Still, there was some hope that Honda had learned and would take up the mantle of leadership in the market again, like it did about half a century ago, and show the world how to produce and sell mass-market efficient vehicles. Alas, it wants to stay addicted to gas and is apparently more than happy to make a U-turn on EVs again. Good luck and good riddance. And congratulations to BYD, Leapmotor, Geely, and others for an easier path to global growth and conquest sales.

Am I being too tough on Honda? Is the market really too challenging for EVs in North American now? Should Honda be given a pass for not being able to compete in China, since it’s a Japanese brand and basically no one is able to compete with the domestic Chinese EV brands? Or has Honda just been dragging its feet for too long and innovating too slowly?