cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/62156706
Company executives said that “Honda was unable to deliver products that offer value for money better than that of newer EV manufacturers,” making it uncompetitive. So it was recording billions in losses and packing up.
It was Mibe, who is now Honda President, who said that the company had “no chance,” reports Nikkei Asia. Mibe was touring the factory of a supplier in China where there were no humans on the production floor. He learned that Chinese factories could build fast and cheap, but also with quality.
Honda and Toyota both slow played full electrification, emphasizing non-plug-in vehicles even as plug in models started moving real volumes.
But Toyota was at least putting a real push in increasing their hybrid lineup, and lining up increasing amounts of electric drivetrains (batteries, motors, regenerative braking chargers, etc.) in their supply chain.
In 2025, Honda sold 1.4 million vehicles in North America, 430,000 of which were electrified vehicles (50,000 of those being the GM-manufactured Prologue and ZDX), mostly non-plug-in hybrids. Honda has refused to bring a plug-in hybrid to market. Looking at the actual manufacturing, Honda has only partially electrified something like 25% of their vehicles.
Meanwhile, Toyota moved 2.5 million vehicles, 47% of which were electrified. About 50,000 of them were plug-in hybrids and 22,000 were full electric. That’s not a lot, but at least they developed their own EVs, have a supply chain for literally millions of (small) batteries and regenerative chargers and electric motors in finished cars.
When it comes time to really put out EVs, Toyota is in a much better position to survive the transition than Honda is.