US-bound Honda-developed EV due in 2025, ahead of schedule

The timeline has been pulled earlier for Honda’s first dedicated electric vehicle engineered in-house for high-volume production.

That yet-unnamed mid- to large-sized EV built on “Honda’s original dedicated EV platform” will go on sale in 2025 for North America—stepped up from a targeted 2026—top Honda executives revealed as part of a company update held Wednesday morning in Japan.

That will follow the introduction of the GM-based Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX, which will both arrive in 2024. The ZDX will be made in Tennessee alongside the Cadillac Lyriq, and the Prologue has been confirmed for North American production (perhaps in Mexico, according to some sources). 

As for the dedicated EV, it’s likely to come from Honda’s Ohio EV hub and affiliated joining-venture battery firm with LG Energy Solution. Those facilities are also likely to build and supply vehicles from Afeela, the joint-venture Sony-Honda EV brand.

The new in-house “e:Architecture” platform is due to underpin multiple future EVs, Honda says, and it adopts a new electric and electronic (E&E) architecture that employs Honda’s own vehicle operating system and in-vehicle software, including a new generation of user interface and digital services, due to be updatable through over-the-air updates through the product lifespan. 

Honda’s last EV for the U.S., the Clarity Electric, was only offered in a few West Coast states and was discontinued in 2020. But this time it’s showing signs that it’s all-in beyond a limited number to appease regulators. The company revealed that in North America, it’s planning to roll out a SmartCharge energy business that “utilizes the power supply capability of EVs”—perhaps indicating it plans home backup power functionality or future bidirectional charging. And it’s working to establish a value chain including procurement, recycling, resources, and raw materials that will help make its manufacturing operations more efficient and lower carbon impact.

On the mobility front, Honda confirmed that it plans to launch its electric scooter called “EM1 e:”, with a swappable battery system, in Japan, Europe, and Indonesia before the end of 2023. 

Honda also discussed three different battery possibilities that it plans to develop and perhaps introduce later in the decade. With GS Yuasa, it’s developing high-capacity, high-output liquid lithium-ion batteries for EVs. It’s developing semi-solid-state batteries with the battery-tech company SES. And it’s planning to establish a demonstration line for its own all-solid-state batteries in 2024, to be introduced in the second half of the 2020s.