Honda recently obtained enough battery capacity to put one million electric vehicles on the road.
Honda recently obtained enough battery capacity to put one million electric vehicles on the road.
CATL supplying 123 GWh of batteries to power Honda EVs
Honda will buy 123 GWh of batteries to power completely electric vehicles in China, the Japanese manufacturer and CATL announced on Thursday.
In 2019, Honda and CATL first agreed to join forces to create a strategic alliance for EV batteries. By the deal, Honda would get a supply of lithium-ion batteries totaling about 56 GWh before 2027.
In contrast to other businesses outside Japan, Honda (and most Japanese automakers) have slowly embraced electric mobility.
Honda has collaborated chiefly with companies that have created technologies to compensate for lost time. For instance, General Motors (GM) Ultium EV platform will serve as the foundation for Honda’s Prologue, the company’s first mass-market electric vehicle in North America.
Honda launched the “e: N Series” EV brand in October 2021 and promised that all new models sold after 2030 would be electric, although only in China initially.
The e: NS1 and e: NP1 electric vehicle models, bearing the Honda brand, were unveiled by the manufacturer in China this past April. Honda intends to introduce 10 EVs in China by 2027, beginning with the two e: N Series cars.
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As Honda scales the manufacturing of its EV series in the fiercely competitive Chinese market, its new relationship with CATL will be crucial. The 123 GWh EV battery capacity, which can power well over 1 million electric vehicles, will be fulfilled by CATL between 2024 and 2030.
The increased agreement between the Japanese automaker and CATL will aid in securing the long-term battery supply required to reach its goal of selling 800,000 EVs in China by 2030.
Electrek’s Take
By the end of the decade, will Honda be able to sell 800,000 electric cars against the odds, or will it be too late?
In the first half of the year, China accounted for more than 56% of all electric vehicle sales worldwide, largely thanks to the quick sales and production growth of EV manufacturers like BYD, NIO, and XPENG.
In any case, it’s great to see Honda expanding its electric vehicle efforts by strengthening critical facets of its supply chain. Honda said it “envisions exporting these cars from China,” even though its initial focus will mainly be on the Chinese market.
The new battery supply deal has a strong base, but it will be interesting to see how Honda executes it. Honda will find it more difficult to establish itself in the quickly changing car business the longer it waits.
