One of the world’s biggest car makers has announced a huge change to its vehicles that will affect its local line-up.
Honda plans to stop selling any petrol or diesel-powered cars by 2040.
This is a global target and is one of the first internal combustion engine bans to affect Australia.
Honda plans to only offer electrified vehicles in Europe by the end of next year, before aiming for 40 per cent of its global sales to be either battery electric cars or hydrogen electric cars by 2030. This will rise to 80 per cent by 2035 and 100 per cent by 2040.
In a recent global presentation Honda said it would invest about $60 billion in research and development of electrified cars and advanced driver tech over the next six years.
The brand is accelerating the rollout of electric cars in the next few years. It hopes to sell 10 different electric models in China in the next five years. The first will be a production version of the prototype unveiled at the Shanghai motor show last week.
Honda didn’t reveal any technical details of the prototype last week, but it is a small electric SUV of a similar size to the new HR-V.
The Japanese maker also announced a new partnership with General Motors to develop electric cars. These are expected to be only offered in the US.
It also plans to launch a new range of electric cars built on a new platform that would be offered globally in the second half of this decade.
Honda is betting just on battery power but is committed to developing hydrogen-powered cars. Fuel-cell cars create energy on-board to power an electric motor and typically have longer range than battery electric vehicles.
Honda was one of the first to invest in hydrogen power with its Clarity fuel cell vehicle first revealed in 2006, which was originally available for lease only in Europe, Japan and parts of the US.
So far most makers of electric cars are focusing on Europe and China where government incentives and legislation is making them more attractive to buyers.
In Europe ever tightening emissions laws means car makers are forced to go electric or get hit with big fines and sales bans.
Mini is one of the few other companies that has set itself an end date for the internal combustion engine. The BMW-owned English brand says it wants out of the fossil fuels game by 2030.
But BMW has admitted that not all markets will nake the transition to full electric at the same pace and BMW will continue to build internal combustion engines as long as there is enough demand.
Kia and Hyundai, too, are betting big on electric cars with the sister brands committing to spending more than $30b by 2025.
Kia is targeting 500,000 sales of electric cars by 2025, which it believes will comprise only 6.6 per cent of the global market for electric vehicles.
All future electric vehicles will be built on the brand’s new modular electric platform, which it shares with sister company Hyundai.
The new platform will form the base for a wide range of vehicles in all shapes and sizes.
The first one due in the coming months will have more than 500km of range and can be charged in less than 20 minutes.
Extracted from Daily Telegraph