TOKYO, May 21 – Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday it will cut its investment plan for electric vehicle technology through fiscal 2030 to around 7 trillion yen ($48 billion) from the previous 10 trillion yen, citing lower-than-expected growth in the EV market, Kyodo news agency reported.
The revision to the plan reflects Honda’s postponement of a 1.5 trillion-yen investment plan to start operations of new EV facilities in Canada, including an EV factory and battery plant, by two years from the initially planned 2028.
Honda President Toshihiro Mibe told a press conference that slow EV growth in North America and in Europe and recent moves to ease environment regulations in the automotive sector, such as in California, have led to the latest review.
“As for the planned investment project in Canada, it does not mean we will definitely restart it in two years. We will decide then by looking at various situation,” Mibe said.
Honda also said the ratio of EV sales to total in 2030 is expected to be around 20 percent, lowering its estimate from the 30 percent projected earlier.
Honda said in May 2024 it would double its investment in EV technology from its previous plan to around 10 trillion yen through fiscal 2030 as it faced challenges from powerful overseas rivals such as Tesla Inc. and China’s BYD Co.
Despite the revisit of the plan, Mibe said “EV will be the optimal solution for achieving carbon neutrality from the long-term perspective.”
Honda maintains its target of increasing the ratio of electric vehicles to fuel-cell vehicles to 100 percent of its overall new car sales in 2040.
