For Honda Motor, the U.S. market is the largest market for products, so it is concerned about the development of infrastructure for the local manufacture of electric vehicles and components for them. As we have learned this week, LG Energy Solution and Honda will start building a joint traction battery company in the U.S. next year.
For Honda Motor, this will be the first such enterprise to be completed by 2025, when it will be able to produce a series of products. The company ' s design capacity is not specified, but similar LG Energy Solution projects imply the annual production of batteries up to 30 GWh, enough to produce between 500 and 600,000 medium-sized electric vehicles.
LG Energy Solution is the second largest manufacturer of lithium batteries for autoprom purposes, with only Chinese CATL. Last year Honda Motor bought one percent of the shares of this Chinese battery manufacturer, but this step was more aimed at providing the company with the necessary infrastructure in the Chinese market, where Honda intends to present 10 new models of electric vehicles by 2027.
In the next couple of years, Honda Motor is going to rely on the Ultium platform of General Motors, which is supplied with LG Energy Solition batteries. In addition to GM, the Korean battery supplier is working in the United States with the local division Stellantis, also hoping to develop a joint production of traction batteries with the partner.
By 2026, Honda Motor is going to start producing electric vehicles on its own platform, and then it's going to need batteries from a plant in Ohio, and Honda already has a car collection plant in this state, but the Japanese company is going to build another company in the United States that will specialize in collecting electric vehicles. Honda expects to produce 800,000 electric cars annually by 2030. By 2040, the company is going to phase out the production of vehicles from the DAF, so the California authorities' decision at the end of this month to ban the sale of new vehicles from the DAF since 2035 is part of Honda's plans.
The Japanese company is developing solid electrolyte batteries on its own, and it is targeting a research centre in Japan. About $310 million will be spent on the development of a pilot line for the production of this type of battery. It will start work in the spring of 2024. Unlike the competing Toyota Motor, Honda is more determined to develop battery electric vehicles, while being skeptical about the idea of using hydrogen fuel cells in passenger transport.