Honda backtracks on its electrification plan

Honda is one of Japan's largest companies, boasting a healthy, well-run company with a lean and adequate product range across all its business divisions, especially in the manufacture of cars and motorcycles. Honda was also one of the first brands to invest in electric cars, with the aim ofHonda and, a good product that failed to gain popularity with the general public and which the brand withdrew from the market a few months ago after commercial results far below initial expectations.

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe announced at a press conference that his brand is abandoning the established electrification roadmap, reorienting more than €18.5 billion of the more than €60 billion Honda had committed to developing new electric models. Honda's CEO cited a "market slowdown" to justify the reorientation of the brand's electric strategy and adjusted the brand's electric vehicle sales targets for 2030 to below 20% of the total, when the initial forecast was that Honda's share of electric cars would be higher. Among the reasons for the change in strategy, Toshihiro Mibe placed special emphasis on the context of regulatory uncertainty in Europe and the tariff crisis in the United States, Honda's two largest markets outside of Japan.

Honda's new roadmap, drawn up by Toshihiro Mibe, focuses on conventional hybrid vehicles, precisely the segment in which Toyota—Honda's eternal rival—has dominated the market for years and is the main technological benchmark for other manufacturers. Honda plans to launch a total of thirteen new hybrid models on the market between 2027 and 2030, allowing the brand to sell more than 2.2 million hybrid vehicles during this period, a figure that would represent 60% of the total number of models Honda plans to sell by 2030.