According to Yomiuri Shimbun on January 8th, Honda is considering building a new electric vehicle (EV) factory in Canada and also considering producing car batteries independently. The company aims to start operating no later than around 2030.
According to reports, Honda has announced plans to start producing electric vehicles in Ohio, USA from 2026, with a new factory in Canada becoming its second base in North America. The company is considering building the factory near its vehicle factory located in Ontario, with an expected significant investment.
It is understood that Honda aims to increase the proportion of North American electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) to 40% by 2030 and 100% by 2040. The company is also considering independently producing automotive batteries as core components, and plans to jointly produce them in the United States with Korean giant LG Energy Solution.
It is worth noting that the report indicates that the Canadian government has announced a policy to ban the sale of gasoline powered vehicles and other engine vehicles by 2035. The US government has also announced tax breaks of up to $7500 (approximately 53700 RMB) for electric vehicles manufactured in North America and batteries.
Yomiuri Shimbun stated that the above policies are expected to provide impetus for Honda's increased production in Canada and sales of electric vehicles throughout North America.
In addition, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Honda's total investment this time may reach 2 trillion yen (about 99.216 billion yuan), creating the largest investment in Honda's history, and is expected to become a turning point in the production of pure electric vehicles that lag behind European and American enterprises.
In terms of Honda's Chinese market, according to a report released by Kyodo News Agency on January 4th, the company's cumulative sales in China in 2023 were 1.2342 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 10.1%. It is reported that this is the third consecutive year of year-on-year decline in this data.
According to the report, due to the rapid popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) in the Chinese market, Japanese manufacturers mainly based on gasoline vehicles are facing challenges. In 2023, BYD, a leading Chinese EV company, saw a significant increase in new car sales by 61.8% to 3.024417 million vehicles, with EV passenger cars increasing by 72.8% to 1.574822 million vehicles.