On April 5, Tuesday the alliance of Honda Co., Ltd and General Motors was announced in order to boost the production of affordable electric vehicles worldwide by 2027. This authentic technology collaboration will thus increase the sale of electric vehicles and attract internal combustion engine users to the vastness of electric space. Thus, this alliance will be testifying to the foreseen vision of CNET in January that the year 2022 will be a record year for the launch of various electric vehicles. As we mentioned, this new project is aiming at bringing affordable electric vehicles to the global markets that the industry was struggling with so far which the China market is excluded as it has already gained eminence with the blast off of low cost, shorter range models like Hongguang Mini EV. This electric beast sold by General Motor’s local Chinese brand Wuling gained a record sale of more than 500,000 units in less than two years only waging a cost of $4000.
General Motors & Honda To Unite and Co-Develop Affordable Electric Vehicles
However, General Motors and Honda are planning to come up with the production of electric vehicles that could be of lower cost but equipped with a higher level of quality for the global markets in which the smaller vehicles could be a better option as they seem to have more pleasing attraction among the automobile admirers. In addition to this, they are looking forward to smashing 50% EV sales by 2023 in North America. In order to execute that, this partnership needs to offer electric products with decent performance, a minimum range of 250 miles also as GM’S Executive Vice president of electric, autonomous, and fuel cell programs stated that the products are expected to be less than $30,000.
Basically, this collaboration is not a unique step as they have already worked together for more than 20 years on various tasks like the production of fuel cells, battery and cruise origin shared autonomous vehicles, etc. and in 2018, they had joined their hands together in the development of an autonomous vehicle. Ultium battery technology is General Motor’s foundation laid for EV strategy and Honda has already depended on GM’s first generation of Ultium electric platform to develop two purpose-built electric wagons. The first one is Honda Prologue which is expected to launch in the North American market by 2024 and the other one yet to be named Acura crossover.
The new vehicles will also be powered by the same battery technology, but so far all the Ultium models were of premium form. The aforementioned two crossovers launching in 2024 are developed in GM’s manufacturing plant. And currently, the two automobile makers associate in developing and utilizing the next generation of General Motor’s Ultium battery technology that will be compiled with lithium metal solid-state technology.
As a result, the next-generation Honda/Acura labeled vehicles will be built profusely with millions of units per year and the process will undergo in both the construction plants of Honda and General Motors. It is also cited that the traditional collaboration of General Motors and Honda will also take place in the upcoming battery technologies where Honda will be contributing to solid-state batteries. Here are the words of Mary Barra, the Chairman, and CEO of General Motors on the partnership with Honda, “ General Motors 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,”.
