Rumors and borderline confirmations circulated for years about GM and Honda potentially teaming up for an ambitious project aimed at creating an affordable EV model. The two have now made it official with both companies confirming the news earlier today.
Honda To Gain Two New SUV Models
A key aspect of this partnership is that Honda will be getting two all new EV utility offerings with the Honda side getting the Prologue while Acura gets a currently unnamed model for the luxury market.
This announcement though expands on this and confirms that the deal will focus on affordable EVs with an entire series of utility models in the works. These offerings would use GM’s Ultium technology, but on a global focused platform that will benefit both companies.
This will play a major role in pricing with GM executive vice president Ken Burns revealing that pricing here would be below the $30,000 price point for the Equinox EV.
Volume Play
GM and Honda didn’t reveal how extensive the collaboration will be, but the two firms did confirm that sales volume will be a key player here with an initial sales target of over 13 million vehicles.
That number does seem plausible since the compact crossover segment has rapidly become the most important vehicle segment in sales with the growth forcing companies to rethink their long term sales plans.
GM 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,” said Mary Barra, GM chair and CEO. “This is a key step to deliver on our commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in our global products and operations by 2040 and eliminate tailpipe emissions from light duty vehicles in the U.S. by 2035. By working together, we’ll put people all over the world into EVs faster than either company could achieve on its own.”
Honda released a separate statement offering their view on today’s news.
The progress we have made with GM since we announced the EV battery development collaboration in 2018, followed by co-development of electric vehicles including the Honda Prologue, has demonstrated the win-win relationship that can create new value for our customers,” said Shinji Aoyama, Honda senior managing executive officer. “This new series of affordable EVs will build on this relationship by leveraging our strength in the development and production of high quality, compact class vehicles.”
When Will We See The First Results?
GM and Honda also released a preliminary timeline for when the buying public could begin seeing some of these models with the first of the bunch slated to begin production in 2027. Things will then accelerate from there as the lineup has more time to flesh out.
In addition the two companies are also using this deal to become carbon neutral with Honda aiming to achieve its global carbon related goals by 2050. GM has a slightly quicker timeline with the firm aiming to achieve the same goals by 2040 with zero emissions in the light truck segment by 2035.
A key weakness for EV offerings is there affordability, with some models having high price tags which in turn affects the ability to achieve broader acceptance. This partnership could completely flip the script and perhaps be the most ambitious attempt yet at promoting EVs to the mainstream consumer.
However, all the pieces need to fall into place to make it all work and that includes discouraging markups at the dealer level that could ruin the affordability mission.
Carl Malek has been an automotive journalist for over 10 years. First starting out as a freelance photographer before making the transition to writing during college, his work has appeared on numerous automotive forums as well as websites such as Autoshopper.com.
Carl is also a big fan of British vehicles with the bulk of his devotion going to the Morgan Motor Company as well as offerings from Lotus, MG, and Caterham. When he is not writing about automobiles, Carl enjoys spending time with his family and friends in the Metro Detroit area, as well as spending time with his adorable pets.