Tokyo, April 12: One of the world’s leading automakers, Japanese Honda announced on Tuesday its intention to scale up electrification of car production, promising to introduce 30 models of electric vehicles (EV) to the global market by 2030 with an overall output of two million cars annually. “Honda is planning to launch 30 EV models globally by 2030, with a full lineup from commercial-use mini-EVs to flagship-class models, and Honda is planning for production volume of more than 2 million units annually,” Honda said in a statement. Honda acknowledged that the key challenge in the transition to the EV era is the batteries’ procurement, which the company intends to address by “strengthening the external partnership,” particularly with North America and China, and by accelerating further research for the development of next-generation batteries. EV production will also be concentrated in these regions, as Honda is planning to build a dedicated EV plant in the Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan and a dedicated EV production line in North America, with the first models to be presented as early as in 2024. To achieve the set targets, Honda pledged to allocate about 5 trillion yen (about $39.8 billion) in electrification and software technologies over the next 10 years, including for both research and development (R&D) spending and separate investments. “Honda’s overall R and D expenses budgeted for this period will be approximately 8 trillion yen,” the statement added. In late 2020, the Japanese government announced plans to create a 2 trillion-yen fund to invest in technologies to cut carbon emissions. In April 2021, Japan increased its target from 26 per cent to 46 per cent of cutting the CO2 emission by 2030 and pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. (UNI)
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