Honda is set to indefinitely halt plans that would’ve built an EV plant in Canada, as sputtering U.S. EV demand has put hybrids at the forefront of the auto giant’s North American strategy.
The Japanese Automaker had decided last May to postpone construction of the plant and accompanying battery factory in Ontario by two years. The plans were first announced in April of 2024, and it was projected to start up in early 2028.
Now, Honda has indefinitely postponed those plans, according to Nikkei, and entered talks with the Canadian government. Scrapping the whole plan is reportedly on the table.
Honda had expected to invest a whopping $15 billion in the plant, which had a planned capacity of 240,000 vehicles a year. the company had also acquired land and was supposed to receive financial support from the government.
Now, although the Canadian government has made significant strides in making EVs accessible, this move is mainly due to the U.S. Nikkei pointed out that EV sales in the U.S. tumbled by 36 per cent on the year in the October-December quarter, while hybrid sales jumped to a record high of 19 per cent, up from 11 per cent a year earlier.
This isn’t the only EV-related move Honda has made recently. It also ended production of the Prologue EV that was co-developed with GM, and cancelled both the Zero-series EVs, and the Afeela EV that was co-developed with Sony.
With the Prologue’s demise and the plant on hiatus, that leaves zero EVs in Honda’s lineup, as Chinese competition rolls onto Canadian roadways.
I’m not too surprised by all of this, as, from personal experience, Honda offers a much more refined mild-hybrid experience that suits North American customers better than its EVs do.
Source: Nikkei
