Honda turns to China to develop electric vehicles

Historically, Honda has been identified as a leader in environmentally friendly and high-efficiency vehicles, but recently the automaker has struggled to deliver class-leading products, and due to policy choices, risks falling further behind the competition.

Toyota has established itself as a strong leader in the hybrid market, offering numerous hybrid vehicles, including the class-leading Prius gas-electric hybrid. Honda, by contrast, lagged behind Toyota and the rest of the market introducing hybrid vehicles, and those it has introduced have failed to make meaningful impacts either technologically, or in sales.

Other automakers, such as Ford with its Escape and Fusion hybrids – both class-leading in fuel economy, and Nissan, with its upcoming electric Leaf which is already sold out for 2010, are moving ahead with advancement previously thought to be exclusively available to Toyota and Honda.

Honda took a gamble when it decided that pure electric and hybrid vehicles would not be important vehicles in the near future, and as those markets expand the Japanese automaker is forced to play catchup. According to Reuters, Honda’s CEO, Takanobu Ito, told reporters Tuesday that he believed, “There needs to be a major breakthrough in battery technology [for electric vehicles to be viable].”

Ito also suggested that it will likely take 10-20 years before purely electric, battery-powered vehicles would be viable mainstream alternatives to fossil-fuel powered vehicles. As a direct result of Ito’s beliefs, the automaker has fallen behind in the development of partnerships and technology for cutting-edge electric vehicles, and as such, hopes to tap into the resources available in China to potentially find a way to catch up to the competition.

“If there is a suitable chance, we hope to work with China to (develop) batteries,” Ito said.

Honda does have an existing partnership with a potential partner to develop batteries for pure electric cars, but that partner is based in Japan and currently produces lithium-ion batteries for Honda’s gas-electric hybrid vehicles, as well as electric vehicles for Mitsubishi.

Source;
http://www.leftlanenews.com/honda-turns-to-china-to-develop-electric-vehicles.html

Japan: Honda plans EV prototype, 2011 Honda Minivan Hybrid?!?

This is an older concept of the Honda ASM Hybrid Minivan, it was rumoured to come to North America a few years back, but obviously was put on the back burner, could this idea be coming back to life?
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Honda is poised to make a cautious foray into development of EVs and may display a prototype model at the forthcoming Tokyo auto show. If a production model follows, initial availability is expected to be limited to just the domestic Japanese market and perhaps one export market and region, e.g. in the US.
Despite this tentative step into the EV sector, where domestic rivals Nissan, Toyota and Mitsubishi already have clear strategies, it is believed Honda will continue to dedicate the majority of powertrain technology R&D towards further development of gasoline-electric hybrids. The OEM retains scepticism concerning the performance and safety of EVs and the available infrastructure for recharging.

In a separate report, and in keeping with Honda’s current strategy, the OEM’s president, Takanobu Ito is reported in the Nikkei as saying the company plans to release a hybrid minivan around 2011. The executive is quoted as saying: "First of all, it is important to expand our line-up; we want to introduce a hybrid model to minivans, which continue to enjoy strong customer demand."

Source;
http://www.automotiveworld.com/news/powertrain/78401-japan-honda-plans-ev-prototype