Honda will globally introduce two electric sports models, a specialty and a flagship model.

Honda

Honda this week said it plans to spend 5 trillion yen, or nearly$40 billion, over the next 10 years to advance its electric vehicle strategy, through R&D and other investments. The Japanese automaker aims to launch 30 EV models globally by 2030 and says it should be producing more than 2 million EVs annually by then.

Its planned EV lineup will include two sports cars -- a specialty and a flagship model. 

"While taking on challenges toward carbon neutrality and electrification, Honda always has a passion to offer fun for its customers," Honda said in its release. 

To begin with, Honda has plans to introduce EVs tailored for regional markets. In North America, the company is partnering with GM to roll out two new mid- to large-size EVs in 2024. In China, Honda will introduce 10 new EV models by 2027. And in Japan, Honda will first introduce a commercial-use mini-EV model at the 1-million-yen price range in early 2024. After that, it will roll out personal-use mini-EVs and EV SUVs.

By the mid-2020s, EVs should be more popular, Honda posits. At that point, in 2026, the company will ramp up its production with the adoption of Honda e: Architecture, an EV platform that combines hardware and software. 

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EV adoption is widely expected to grow quickly in the next decade. Just 4 million EVs shipped globally in 2021, according to Gartner, but the research firm expects shipments to reach 36 million by 2030, increasing by 32%. In the United States in 2021, Tesla held a whopping 74% of the market, with the Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf and a few other models taking fractions of the market.

Honda said that by 2027, in partnership with GM, it should be able to introduce affordable EVs -- cars with a cost and range that are as competitive as gas-powered vehicles. 

The biggest challenge facing EV makers right now is batteries. Honda has a two-part plan to address the issue. 

For now, the company plans to rely on maintaining its external partnerships in different geographic regions to ensure it has a stable supply of liquid lithium-ion batteries. By the mid-2020s, Honda plans to have next-gen battery technology ready to go to market. 

Like Nissan, Honda is currently developing all-solid-state batteries, a potentially game-changing technology that could significantly reduce the cost of EVs. Honda is investing about 43 billion yen, or$343 million, to build a demonstration line with the aim of making it operational in Spring 2024. 

Honda's electrification initiatives are part of its effort to achieve carbon neutrality "for all products and corporate activities" by 2050, the company says. To reach that goal, it said, "a multifaceted and multidimensional approach is needed, not a mere replacing of engines with batteries." It also includes using swappable batteries and hydrogen, the company said.

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