Honda to launch 30 electric vehicles by 2030

Honda will invest £31 billion in electrification as it looks to develop 30 battery-powered vehicles by 2030.

Announced today, the Japanese firm has made a firm commitment to electrification and hopes to produce more than two million electric vehicles globally each year by 2030, bringing a commercial-use mini-EV in early 2024 before introducing ‘affordable EVs’ in 2027.

To achieve this, Honda has allocated eight trillion yen (£49bn) to research and development, of which five trillion yen (£31bn) will be put towards electrification and software.

In order to aid with production, Honda is planning to build EV production plants in Guangzhou and Wuhan in China. It is also looking to create a dedicated electric vehicle production line in North America. However, the firm is also exploring ‘multifaceted and multidimensional solutions’ to mobility, with battery-powered vehicles being explored alongside hydrogen power, carbon-neutral fuels and swappable batteries, among other options.

It appears that Honda is also developing a successor to the iconic NSX. The firm has stated that it will ‘globally introduce two sports models, a specialist and a flagship model, which will embody Honda’s universal sports mindset and distinctive characters’. The current NSX is due to end production shortly. Utilising a 573bhp hybrid system, the latest NSX arrived as the third generation in the line of Honda’s tip-top sporting models.

The firm has already committed to ending the sale of combustion-engined cars globally by 2040 and currently operates a line-up of cars in the UK that are only available with either electric or hybrid power.