Photo: Honda
In the U.S., Honda established a partnership with General Motors to use the Ultium platform and start selling at least one EV: the Prologue. In Europe, it created the Honda e, which is not exactly a best seller. That’s because the company will only bet more heavily on electric cars when it has solid-state cells. China will not allow it to wait. With the world’s largest car market craving EVs, the Japanese automaker signed a deal with CATL to buy 123 GWh in batteries.
CNEVPost wrote that the supply deal will give Honda batteries from 2024 until 2030. That means the Japanese carmaker will get around 17.6 GWh in cells per year. Currently, Honda sells two electric cars in China, both based on the HR-V. The e:NS1 is made by Honda’s joint venture with Dongfeng, while the e:NP1 is a product from its joint venture with GAC. Both cars look identical and have a 68.8-kWh battery pack.
If Honda used the 123 GWh in CATL batteries to make only the e:NS1 and e:NP1, it could manufacture 1.78 million EVs with this agreement. That number can grow substantially with smaller battery packs, but we would bet new electric Hondas for the Chinese market will probably have larger battery packs for longer ranges. If all future Honda EVs had 100 kWh battery packs, the supply agreement would allow the sale of 1.23 million electric cars.
According to CNEVPost, new energy vehicles (NEVs) reached a record market share in China in November. They represented 36.3% of all new cars sold in the country that month. For Honda, it is mandatory to increase its participation in that market segment, and neither the e:NS1 nor the e:NP1 did the trick: they are presenting feeble sales numbers.
Without the development of electric cars from the ground up, it is very unlikely that Honda will manage to be a serious contender in the world’s largest car market. Toyota is trying to do better with a partnership with BYD. Without that option, Honda will have to rush to become more appealing there.
If Honda used the 123 GWh in CATL batteries to make only the e:NS1 and e:NP1, it could manufacture 1.78 million EVs with this agreement. That number can grow substantially with smaller battery packs, but we would bet new electric Hondas for the Chinese market will probably have larger battery packs for longer ranges. If all future Honda EVs had 100 kWh battery packs, the supply agreement would allow the sale of 1.23 million electric cars.
According to CNEVPost, new energy vehicles (NEVs) reached a record market share in China in November. They represented 36.3% of all new cars sold in the country that month. For Honda, it is mandatory to increase its participation in that market segment, and neither the e:NS1 nor the e:NP1 did the trick: they are presenting feeble sales numbers.
Without the development of electric cars from the ground up, it is very unlikely that Honda will manage to be a serious contender in the world’s largest car market. Toyota is trying to do better with a partnership with BYD. Without that option, Honda will have to rush to become more appealing there.
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