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Honda Motor Company and General Motors announced on Tuesday, April 5, that they will be expanding their collaboration to co-develop more affordable electric vehicles based on a new global architecture.
The automakers are planning to use the next-generation Ultium battery technology to power the new EV series that they will be producing under their joint venture. The project will allow Honda Motor and GM to produce millions of EV units starting in the year 2027.
According to Reuters, the announcement stretched out from GM’s plans to start building electric sports utility vehicles for Honda starting in 2024, and these models are the Honda Prologue and the Acura. It was said that the compact crossover is currently the largest selling auto division in the world, with an annual volume of over 13 million vehicles.
At any rate, GM and Honda declined to reveal the amount of their joint investment for their new project. The former’s executive vice president, Ken Morris, mentioned in a recent conference call that the pricing of the EVs that they will produce will be below $30,000. The two also have plans for EV battery technology collaboration in the future to further lower the prices of electric vehicles.
“GM and Honda will share our best technology, design, and manufacturing strategies to deliver affordable and desirable EVs on a global scale, including our key markets in North America, South America and China,” GM’s chairman and chief executive officer, Mary Barra, said in a press release. “This is a key step to deliver on our commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in our global products and operations by 2040 and eliminate tailpipe emissions from light-duty vehicles in the U.S. by 2035.
Barra added that by working together with Honda, they would also be putting people around the world into electric cars faster than either GM or Honda could achieve on their own. Toshihiro Mibe, Honda’s president and CEO, further said, “Honda and GM will build on our successful technology collaboration to help achieve a dramatic expansion in the sales of electric vehicles.”
