{"id":82492,"date":"2025-05-20T07:37:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T11:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=82492"},"modified":"2025-05-20T07:37:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T11:37:38","slug":"honda-commits-to-going-out-of-business-by-pulling-back-on-evs-as-sales-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=82492","title":{"rendered":"Honda commits to going out of business by pulling back on EVs as sales rise"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"Honda<\/figure>\n

Honda said it will reduce its planned EV investments by $21 billion, claiming that it\u2019s doing so due to a slowdown in EV sales which isn\u2019t actually happening.<\/p>\n

Instead, it will focus on hybrids, which get 100% of their energy from fossil fuels, and which cause climate change and poison the air you breathe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Honda\u2019s announcement<\/a> came earlier today in Japan, stating that it will scrap its plan for EVs to be 30% of its global vehicle sales by 2030, citing a \u201cslowdown in the expansion of the EV market due to several factors, including changes in environmental regulations.\u201d It will reduce planned investment from 10 trillion yen ($69 billion) to 7 trillion ($48 billion).<\/p>\n

However, as we have pointed out many times here at Electrek,<\/em> EV sales have not fallen, cooled, slowed or slumped<\/a>. In fact, last year, in 2024, EV sales grew more<\/em> than they did in 2023<\/a>. Meanwhile, global gas car sales hit their peak in 2017<\/a>, and have been trending down since.<\/p>\n

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Honda didn\u2019t precisely state its new timeline, but said that EVs would fall below the previously-announced target of 30% by 2030.<\/p>\n

It instead said it would focus on hybrids, which get 100% of their energy from fossil fuels, and thus pollute the air you breathe and cause climate change with every stroke of their outdated, inefficient engines.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

(*Note: Honda\u2019s chart says \u201cHEV,\u201d not \u201cPHEV\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s possible they\u2019re including plug-ins here, and thus some of these vehicles will get some of their energy<\/a> from something other than fossil fuels, but HEV typically means conventional hybrids which get all of their energy from gas)<\/p>\n

Honda said that these gas-guzzling hybrids will \u201cbe introduced to market in 2027 onward,\u201d which means they will continue driving on roads and polluting the Earth for decades, including after Honda\u2019s 2050 carbon-neutrality target.<\/p>\n

Honda\u2019s previous plan for 30% by 2030 was already quite low compared to other global automakers<\/a>, even after many of these companies have walked back their EV plans. Most of these other companies also cited the nonexistent slowdown in EV sales.<\/p>\n

Honda said that its future hybrid models will \u201cplay a key role during the transition period toward the popularization of EVs.\u201d In some of the world\u2019s more profitable countries for auto sales, EVs are already at or nearing majority market share<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Electrek\u2019s Take<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s estimated that this year \u2013 not 2030 \u2013 25% of cars sold globally will be EVs<\/a>. So, any company that sells less than that is lagging behind the curve, losing ground to companies that are ready for the transition that is already happening. When you are behind, the way to catch up is to speed up, not to slow down.<\/p>\n

This 25% EV sales projection shouldn\u2019t be a surprise, because EV sales have been rising globally for many years now, and haven\u2019t stopped doing so, as we keep having to point out<\/a>. In fact, the opposite is happening.<\/p>\n

Honda also mentioned changes in environmental regulations, stating that these regulations were \u201cthe premise for the widespread adoption of EVs.\u201d In the same statement, it mentioned its \u201cambitious goal to \u2018achieve carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities’\u201d \u2013 so I guess the mention of regulations as the actual premise means all that carbon neutrality stuff was just greenwashing, after all.<\/p>\n

But as for regulations, currently, US regulations target ~50% market share for EVs by 2030<\/a>, and California targets 68%<\/a>. 30% is a far cry from either of these, so one would think that Honda should increase that number, not lower it.<\/p>\n

Further, those regulations are likely not changing nearly enough to make up for Honda\u2019s change in strategy here. Despite the protests<\/a> of a former reality TV host and convicted felon (who is Constitutionally barred from holding office in the US<\/a>, by the way), it is unlikely that already-filed regulations, which cover the period from 2027-2032, will be changed.<\/p>\n

But the US isn\u2019t the world \u2013 maybe Honda was talking about other major markets?<\/p>\n

Well, Europe isn\u2019t changing its regulations, either \u2013 the bloc recently said it will give automakers \u201cbreathing room\u201d,<\/a> allowing them to use the average of their emissions from 2025-2027 to comply with new emissions regulations, but this will still require a steeper ramp-up by the end of that period if automakers are not in compliance today. In other words, those regulations have not been softened on a 2030 timeline, only on a 2025 one.<\/p>\n

And in China, well, new regulations went into effect a couple years ago<\/a>, but they almost didn\u2019t need to, because ICE cars are virtually unsellable there these days. EV adoption is rising incredibly rapidly in China, driven by local brands which Chinese customers trust more, and which have more nifty features than the models global automakers are offering there.<\/p>\n

In fact, Honda\u2019s profit is slipping precisely because of the rapid advancement of the Chinese auto market. AP reports<\/a> that Honda\u2019s Q1 profits slipped by 24.5%, driven largely by sliding sales in China in the face of local EV competition. How\u2019s that for \u201cslowing demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honda does sell one EV in the US market, the Prologue, which is selling like gangbusters. It\u2019s the fifth-best-selling EV in the country, and was a large part of what drove US EV sales into growth in April<\/a>. It\u2019s also Honda\u2019s fastest-growing model<\/a> \u2013 though, to be fair, that does count from a very low baseline, as the model was only trickling out onto the market a year ago.<\/p>\n

So, there seems to be no real justification for Honda\u2019s change in strategy here. Unless they seem to enjoy that China is now beating Japan in terms of auto exports<\/a>, and are excited to see Japan lose 14% of GDP and millions of jobs by stalling on EVs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I guess if you want to go out of business and bring your country and the planet down with you, this is the way to do it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

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Honda said it will reduce its planned EV investments by $21 billion, claiming that it\u2019s doing so due to a slowdown in EV sales which isn\u2019t actually happening. Instead, it will focus on hybrids, which get 100% of their energy from fossil fuels, and which cause climate change and poison the air you breathe. Honda\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}