{"id":161046,"date":"2021-03-12T14:41:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T19:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=161046"},"modified":"2021-03-12T14:41:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T19:41:55","slug":"honda-reveals-plans-for-two-new-evs-in-u-s-for-my2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2021\/03\/honda-reveals-plans-for-two-new-evs-in-u-s-for-my2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Honda Reveals Plans for Two New EVs in U.S. for MY2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Honda officials are bringing two EV utes to the U.S market for the 2024 model year, but will add more hybrids to join the Accord prior to that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Honda\u2019s just announced plan to sell two all-electric SUVs in the U.S. starting with the 2024 year is just latest product of the partnership between the Japanese automaker and General Motors<\/p>\n

In addition to the utes, Honda expects to sell hybrid gas-electric versions of its top-selling models, officials announced Thursday. Until recently, Honda\u2019s been a laggard in the growing effort to bring EVs to market. However, the automaker began trying to catch up a few years ago with its initial pairing with GM to develop batteries.<\/p>\n

Since then, the two automakers have become fast friends, announcing additional joint efforts, including investing heavily in GM\u2019s autonomous electric subsidiary Cruise<\/a><\/u><\/strong> and other EV and AI-related efforts. However, the seeds for the recent announcement were sown almost exactly a year ago.<\/p>\n

EV plans revealed last spring<\/h3>\n

In April, the two revealed Honda planned to use GM\u2019s Ultium batteries<\/a><\/u><\/strong> to power two EVs coming for the 2024 model year. The companies saw it as a way to unlock economies of scale and drive down the price of the batteries for vehicles coming from each automaker.<\/p>\n

\"GM<\/a>
Honda plans to use GM’s Ultium EV platform for its two new EVs coming for the 2024 model year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time, GM showed off a variety of EVs it was working on, including the GMC Hummer SUT and the Cadillac Lyriq. However, Honda remained mum until this week, and even those details are scant.<\/p>\n

Dave Gardner, Honda\u2019s U.S. sales chief, told reporters one of the electric SUVs will be from the Honda brand, while the other will be an Acura. The platform used will be GM\u2019s Ultium model with Honda providing unique bodies.<\/p>\n

Honda\u2019s decision to partner initially gave the automaker a glidepath toward EVs; however, with mandates in Europe accelerating and in the U.S. the Biden administration and California looking to follow suit to some extent, securing the partnership with GM proved to be sound maneuver.<\/p>\n

Strengthening the pairing<\/h3>\n

The two companies expanded their deal last September<\/a><\/u><\/strong>, revealing a new memorandum of understanding that they\u2019ll seek to pair up in even more areas hoping to reduce costs and accelerate vehicle and technology development.<\/p>\n

Engineering, purchasing, services and other areas of the business would be open to partnership under the new deal, they said at the time, but noted the goal was to save money and improve products while maintaining each company\u2019s individual identity.<\/p>\n

At that time, the biggest advantage was clear: speed. In an industry that is becoming more technologically advance at a quicker rate than ever, combining the R&D efforts in advanced technology areas, including electrical architecture, advanced driver assist systems, infotainment, connectivity and vehicle-to-everything communication makes a big difference.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The GM-Honda relationship began more than two decades ago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The move to work with a strong partner isn\u2019t new to GM and Honda, it\u2019s becoming the standard for automakers around the world. Ford and Volkswagen have an expansive agreement to work together in a variety of areas such as electric vehicle development, truck and commercial vans and autonomous vehicle technology.<\/p>\n

Pressure from the inside<\/h3>\n

Honda\u2019s top officials recognize the clock is ticking and the company is playing catchup. It recently traded out its CEO<\/a><\/u><\/strong> for an internal candidate, which was as much about tradition as it was accelerating its alternative energy efforts.<\/p>\n

To meet ever-toughening emissions standards, Honda\u2019s reducing emissions from its internal combustion vehicles, Gardner noted, according to the Associated Press. It offers the Insight hybrid as well as the Accord and CR-V, its top-selling vehicle. Look for it to add at least two new hybrid models in the short term, he noted.<\/p>\n

Honda is focused on being carbon-neutral by 2050, but it hasn\u2019t followed the lead of several other automaker \u2014 GM included \u2014 and issued an EV-only date. GM\u2019s is 2035, for those who are interested. Instead of offering up deadlines, the company seems content to acknowledge it is playing hurry up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to now focus all of our energies in this direction in order to meet timelines,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Honda\u2019s just announced plan to sell two all-electric SUVs in the U.S. starting with the 2024 year is just latest product of the partnership between the Japanese automaker and General Motors In addition to the utes, Honda expects to sell hybrid versions of its top-selling models, officials announced. Get details at TheDetroitBureau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":155492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,12,9],"tags":[],"make":[58,63],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,286,150,151,123,287,133,131,289,155,243,238,154,132,130,284,124,139,148,290,128,291,278,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161046"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=161046"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=161046"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=161046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}