Honda Transferring Forward With Large Ohio EV Hub, + New Electrical Bike Manufacturing unit in India

By Imran Last updated Feb 14, 2025

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Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress initiated the most important reshoring initiative in US historical past. The Inflation Discount Act (IRA) stimulated billions upon billions of {dollars} of battery manufacturing factories and different cleantech manufacturing amenities within the US. It additionally inspired EV manufacturing within the US by way of stipulations on client EV subsidies. One of many first EV manufacturing plans to be introduced in affiliation with this was an enormous Honda battery manufacturing unit and EV hub in Ohio. Fortunately, this challenge remains to be going ahead regardless of the administration change, considerations about what that can imply for Inflation Discount Act funding and the US EV tax credit score, and total uncertainty within the US and with international commerce.

Honda’s EV Manufacturing Hub in Ohio

The Honda manufacturing unit is big not simply due to its dimension, but additionally as a result of it’s going to function a sort of international middle and instance for the corporate, one thing that’s extremely atypical for Honda exterior of Japan. That could be partly due to IRA insurance policies, but it surely is also as a result of the US is so necessary for Honda.

Its factories in Ohio are receiving greater than $1 billion in funding from Honda this yr. This can embody 6 “giga presses” in addition to a brand new battery cell manufacturing system. The primary EV produced by Honda, the Acura RSX, is anticipated to enter manufacturing within the state later this yr. (Should you’re confused, figuring out that the corporate sells the Honda Prologue and the Acura ZDX, keep in mind that GM produces these for Honda.) Then there would be the new Honda 0 EVs.

“The Honda EV hub in Ohio is establishing the worldwide normal for EV manufacturing for folks, for expertise and for processes,” mentioned Mike Fischer, the pinnacle of Honda battery-electric car tasks in North American. “As we increase EV manufacturing regionally and globally, that is the footprint and the attribute efficiency that will probably be used.”

“The corporate’s rising EV hub in Ohio, together with a separate $3.5 billion battery plant, would be the flagship for Honda’s international manufacturing operations. That features its Marysville Auto Plant being able to producing conventional automobiles, hybrids and EVs on the identical meeting line, officers mentioned throughout a daylong tour of the operations,” CNBC studies.

Honda is a large US automaker at this level, even whether it is Japanese at coronary heart. It produced multiple million vehicles right here final yr, and 36% had been exported whereas People purchased the opposite 64%.

Electrical Bikes in India

Whereas most of us take into consideration vehicles once we consider Honda, the corporate additionally produces plenty of two-wheelers. In India, it plans to provide plenty of electrical ones. It has plans to construct a 100% electrical motorbike manufacturing unit there, in all probability within the state of Karnataka.

India is the most important two-wheeler market on this planet, and Honda needs to have the best share of electrical motorbike gross sales there.

As a part of a giant abstract briefing on its motorbike enterprise just lately, Honda wrote:

Initiatives towards the popularization of electrical bikes

1) Enhancement of the product lineup

Honda has been strategically continuing with plans to introduce 30 electrical fashions globally by 2030 to attain the aim to extend its international annual gross sales of electrical motorbike fashions to 4 million items by 2030.

To this finish, Honda positioned 2024 as the primary yr of electrical globalization and made full-fledged entry into the market. In October 2024, Honda introduced two international electrical motorbike fashions in Indonesia: the CUV e: powered by two items of Honda Cellular Energy Pack e: swappable batteries; and the ICON e: powered by a hard and fast battery. The CUV e: is scheduled to go on sale in 20 international locations together with European international locations and Japan.

In November, Honda introduced two electrical motorbike fashions designed solely for India: ACTIVA e: powered by two items of Honda Cellular Energy Pack e:, and the QC1 powered by a hard and fast battery. Of the 30 fashions focused for introduction by 2030, Honda has already launched 13 fashions, making regular progress with the plan.

At EICMA 2024, Honda unveiled two electrical motorbike idea fashions: the EV Enjoyable Idea, the primary Honda electrical sports activities mannequin; and the EV City Idea that embodies the Honda imaginative and prescient of city mobility within the close to future.

By providing all kinds of electrical fashions that accommodate the more and more various buyer wants, Honda will attempt to turn out to be the main firm additionally within the electrical motorbike market.

2) Institution and enhancement of charging and utilization atmosphere

For the popularization of electrical bikes, Honda has not solely been enhancing its product lineup but additionally implementing initiatives to enhance the atmosphere for the utilization.

Along with Japan, Indonesia and Thailand, Honda started providing a battery sharing service in India by its native subsidiary, Honda Energy Pack Power India Pvt. Ltd. (HEID), for the additional popularization of electrical motorbike fashions powered by swappable batteries. Coinciding with the market launch of the ACTIVA e:, HEID will start providing the Honda e:Swap, battery sharing service that allows battery swapping in three main Indian cities, particularly Bengaluru, the Nationwide Capital Territory of Delhi, and Mumbai, which is able to get rid of the customers’ nervousness of working out of battery energy and want to attend for recharging and supply mobility expertise with better peace of thoughts.

Furthermore, Honda will strengthen after-sales companies and upkeep by leveraging the business’s largest gross sales community^*1 consisting of 6,000 dealership places all through India. As well as, with the plan to proceed introducing extra electrical fashions powered by a hard and fast battery, Honda will leverage its broad gross sales community to boost the battery charging community, which is able to get rid of buyer nervousness of working out of battery energy.

By these initiatives, Honda can even attempt to seize the most important market share within the electrical motorbike market in India.

3) Discount of the price of possession of electrical bikes

Honda can be working to cut back the Whole Value of Possession (TCO), which will probably be one of many challenges related to the introduction of electrical bikes.

Honda is striving to promote its electrical motorbike fashions within the worth vary the place the TOC for the three years of possession will probably be equal to that of ICE fashions. To realize this goal, Honda will start working a devoted electrical motorbike manufacturing plant in India in 2028. All kinds of electrical fashions will probably be produced by combining modules which can be commonized for a number of fashions. Moreover, for batteries, the core part of electrical fashions, Honda has been working with battery producers to ascertain specs suited to the traits of bikes and guarantee steady procurement.

4) Reutilization and recirculation of batteries

Working towards the conclusion of carbon neutrality, Honda is conducting numerous initiatives from the angle of useful resource circulation, together with secondary use and recycling of batteries.

In India, in collaboration with OMC Energy, which operates a distributed energy provide and grid enterprise, Honda has begun an initiative to make the most of used Honda Cellular Energy Pack e: as energy feeders which is able to assist folks in areas with unstable energy provide and off-grid areas in India, supplying energy to native shops and colleges.

In the end, Honda will work to construct a recycling-oriented/round worth chain, which incorporates the recycling of valuable metals and different supplies.

A lot goes beneath the radar with electrical two-wheelers. They’re stealthy like that I suppose. Or possibly it’s simply that we’re too US centric as some commenters declare. In any case, it’s good to see Honda having a powerful give attention to electrifying two-wheelers — after all, it is aware of it wants to take action so as to not fall behind.