Honda scraps its joint venture with GM to create inexpensive EVs

Honda and GM announced intentions to create a number of inexpensive EVs by 2027 that would make use of a new architecture based on GM’s Ultium batteries back in April of last year. They discussed setting up the ability to produce millions of such vehicles.

Toshihiro Mibe, CEO of Honda, announced today that the entire aforementioned proposal has been scrapped.
“After studying this for a year, we decided that this would be difficult as a business, so at the moment we are ending development of an affordable EV. GM and Honda will search for a solution separately. This project itself has been canceled”, Mibe told Bloomberg with clarity.

Mibe went on to cite costs and “cruising distance challenges” as reasons for halting the previously announced plan. That plan was to make EVs priced below €28,000 in the US. The two businesses thought that by working together, they would be able to build new EVs more quickly and more affordably, giving them a greater chance to compete with companies like Tesla and BYD.

However, since none of that will now take place, it is uncertain whether GM and Honda will each later develop a more affordable EV.