Honda and LG have joined hands to develop a $4.4-billion EV battery plant in the USA, primarily for Honda’s vehicles. While the press release from these manufacturers didn’t mention the location of this plant, we know it will inaugurate at the start of next year. The plan is to start production in 2025 with a capacity of 40 gigawatt-hours per year.
These lithium-ion batteries will be placed in Honda- and Acura-badged electric vehicles for the USA market.
“Aligned with our longstanding commitment to building products close to the customer, Honda is committed to the local procurement of EV batteries which is a critical component of EVs,” said Toshihiro Mibe, president, CEO, and representative director of Honda Motor Company.
Honda has a step-by-step plan for EVs. The company will first introduce the production-ready Prologue and updated Acura ZDX, both boasting the General Motors Ultium platform. GM might also develop these cars, according to some rumours.
After that, Honda, in 2026, will unveil its own-built e: Architecture platform, which will underpin the vehicles from Honda and Acura. Based on the details we have so far, these vehicles will employ Honda-LG batteries.
Regrettably, we do not have any technical data available on the e: Architecture. However, we do know the vehicles using the new platform will first go on sale in North America before being available in other parts.
Interestingly, Honda has also joined hands with GM to co-create a new global platform that will underpin Honda and GM vehicles in 2027.
At the start of 2022, we heard about a joint venture between Honda and Sony for a new electric vehicle. The companies wanted a vehicle that could become a part of a new brand. We hope to see a Sony Honda vehicle in 2025. However, we do not know whether Sony’s Vision-S concepts relate to the upcoming brand or not.
Honda plans to produce 30 electric vehicles by 2030 and sell over 2 million units of these every year. The next strategy would be to build solid-state batteries.
If you want to see the first EV from Acura, check out this video.
Source and Images: Motor1