6 ms·

Currently Toyota and Nissan plan to have solid state batteries in 2027 and 2028... and Honda is planning sometime after that. Honda currently has 0 EVs for sal

Currently Toyota and Nissan plan to have solid state batteries in 2027 and 2028... and Honda is planning sometime after that. Honda currently has 0 EVs for sale. These guys dont give af about EVs... touting Panasonic's research while they twiddle their thumbs and do the bare minimum. Currently Honda is planning to have solid state batteries at the same time as the rest of the industry. So they make a lot of noise about this, but they're exactly as far behind as it appears.

Neil44 3y ago
Honda was one of the first into hybrids.
- irrational 3y ago
  As was Toyota, but since then both have been dragging their feet.
  - Neil44 3y ago
    Yeah. I wonder if it's because both their markets are quite conservative and BEV's are still quite immature.
    - usertrjx 3y ago
      I think they both invested heavily in Hydrogen, as that was what the Japanese govt wanted to push. But the market went a different road.
iolo 3y ago
Honda sell the Honda e [1] [1] https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/honda/e https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/honda/e
- rgbrenner 3y ago
  Nope, sorry that amazing car with 140mi range for almost $40k that was only sold in the EU and Japan was discontinued and Honda already shutdown the production line. For some reason, this car that was introduced 2 years after the Model 3 had poor sales.
- ramesh31 3y ago
  > Honda sell the Honda e [1] This is a compliance car.
  - numpad0 3y ago
    I think the Honda e is a repurposed Waymo contract than compliance car. There is nothing that shares a body panel or platform with that car.
ShaunK 3y ago
Yeah between this and Toyota's similar talk about amazing tech just around the corner (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36833836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36833836) it feels like this could be a concerted effort by Japanese car manufacturers to create some FUD to keep people out of EVs while they get their act together.
cjrp 3y ago
The Honda e:Ny1 (great name...) is coming next year I think, at least in Europe.
serjester 3y ago
Honda is a very Japanese company internally - they have their 30 year vision (all electric fleet) and they take slow incremental steps to achieve it. The reality is they’re a fairly small automaker and 99% of their current sales are IC cars. They believe they will do more for the environment to keep spending a large portion of their R&D budget getting gains out of their existing cars than completely pivoting to something people aren’t currently buying. In the meantime, a lot of the fundamental issues with EV cars will iron themselves out. Westerners want results tomorrows but the Japanese will take incremental steps that maximize the chance of success over an incredibly long time horizon. Very different mindsets.
- conqrr 3y ago
  This rings true for Mazda as well, which has eventual plans but nothing immediate. I'm sure once they have their EVs, they will uphold to the same reliability as their ICs.
- cowmix 3y ago
  Honda isn't even doing incremental steps, they are sitting it out still hoping EVs fail. That was a "safe" bet 10 years ago but completely insane now. Car companies just can't pivot on a dime, you have to ramp up your supply chain over a few years which the the Japanese OEMs are NOT doing. In the early 2000s Toyota and Honda did hybrids right while the US OEMs sat out the first 10 year. Japan OEMS are doing that failed US OEM stragegy now for EVs... and they'll unfortunately pay for it.
  - serjester 3y ago
    This really isn't a fair characterization. https://hondanews.com/en-US/releases/honda-announces-next-steps-in-preparation-for-us-ev-production https://hondanews.com/en-US/releases/honda-announces-next-st...
    - cowmix 3y ago
      Are you kidding me? Those are modest investments for how far behind they are and it is nothing compared to every other OEM's EV (re)investment. That one joint venture battery plant for instance will at some point do 40GWH output a year while Tesla's Reno plan does 100 GWH a year -- right now.

Neil44 3y ago

Honda was one of the first into hybrids.

irrational 3y ago
As was Toyota, but since then both have been dragging their feet.
- Neil44 3y ago
  Yeah. I wonder if it's because both their markets are quite conservative and BEV's are still quite immature.
  - usertrjx 3y ago
    I think they both invested heavily in Hydrogen, as that was what the Japanese govt wanted to push. But the market went a different road.

iolo 3y ago

Honda sell the Honda e [1] [1] https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/honda/e https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/honda/e

rgbrenner 3y ago
Nope, sorry that amazing car with 140mi range for almost $40k that was only sold in the EU and Japan was discontinued and Honda already shutdown the production line. For some reason, this car that was introduced 2 years after the Model 3 had poor sales.
ramesh31 3y ago
> Honda sell the Honda e [1] This is a compliance car.
- numpad0 3y ago
  I think the Honda e is a repurposed Waymo contract than compliance car. There is nothing that shares a body panel or platform with that car.

ShaunK 3y ago

Yeah between this and Toyota's similar talk about amazing tech just around the corner (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36833836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36833836) it feels like this could be a concerted effort by Japanese car manufacturers to create some FUD to keep people out of EVs while they get their act together.

cjrp 3y ago

The Honda e:Ny1 (great name...) is coming next year I think, at least in Europe.

serjester 3y ago

Honda is a very Japanese company internally - they have their 30 year vision (all electric fleet) and they take slow incremental steps to achieve it. The reality is they’re a fairly small automaker and 99% of their current sales are IC cars. They believe they will do more for the environment to keep spending a large portion of their R&D budget getting gains out of their existing cars than completely pivoting to something people aren’t currently buying. In the meantime, a lot of the fundamental issues with EV cars will iron themselves out. Westerners want results tomorrows but the Japanese will take incremental steps that maximize the chance of success over an incredibly long time horizon. Very different mindsets.

conqrr 3y ago
This rings true for Mazda as well, which has eventual plans but nothing immediate. I'm sure once they have their EVs, they will uphold to the same reliability as their ICs.
cowmix 3y ago
Honda isn't even doing incremental steps, they are sitting it out still hoping EVs fail. That was a "safe" bet 10 years ago but completely insane now. Car companies just can't pivot on a dime, you have to ramp up your supply chain over a few years which the the Japanese OEMs are NOT doing. In the early 2000s Toyota and Honda did hybrids right while the US OEMs sat out the first 10 year. Japan OEMS are doing that failed US OEM stragegy now for EVs... and they'll unfortunately pay for it.
- serjester 3y ago
  This really isn't a fair characterization. https://hondanews.com/en-US/releases/honda-announces-next-steps-in-preparation-for-us-ev-production https://hondanews.com/en-US/releases/honda-announces-next-st...
  - cowmix 3y ago
    Are you kidding me? Those are modest investments for how far behind they are and it is nothing compared to every other OEM's EV (re)investment. That one joint venture battery plant for instance will at some point do 40GWH output a year while Tesla's Reno plan does 100 GWH a year -- right now.