Electric Honda Cars, SUVs, and Motorcycles are Coming Soon—Just Not This Year

• Honda laid out its plans to acheive 100% EV/FCEV vehicles by 2040.

• Look for the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX EVs next year, followed by a “mid- to large-size EV model” in 2025 in the U.S. Last year Honda said there will be three or four "fun" electric motorcycles in the U.S. by 2025. Other global markets will get cool cars that we won't.

• No direct mention was made of the Sony Afeela car.

Almost every carmaker in the world is ahead of Honda when it comes to electric vehicles. Every carmaker from Hyundai to BMW to Mercedes to Ford has full battery electric vehicles of one form or another in showrooms. While Honda may still be behind the competition when it comes to EVs, it does have a zero-emissions plan. It reiterated details of that plan, and updated others, in a “Business Briefing” from Japan April 26. Many elements of it were laid out last year, but there were some new specifics disclosed.

Both the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX electric vehicles being codeveloped with General Motors will go on sale next year. Those will ride on GM’s Ultium battery electric platform. Honda has used technology of other carmakers in the past – remember the Isuzu partnership to build SUVs? Who can forget those original Troopers? Honda said in the Briefing that it will “...further strengthen its alliance with GM. In addition to codeveloping a series of affordable electric vehicles, which will go on sale in 2027 and beyond, the two companies will continue exploring a broad range of collaboration which will combine the respective strengths of the two companies and increase competitiveness in the areas of core electrification components.”

Honda will switch to its own E&E architecture for a “mid- to large-size EV model” in 2025, though no name was released for that model. The E&E architecture is based on Honda’s original dedicated EV platform.

“The new model coming in 2025 is the first of Honda’s new BEVs that will feature our proprietary e:Architecture EV platform,” a spokesman said. “In prior announcements, we’d targeted to begin introducing e:Architecture models in 2026. So the timing has been pulled forward of prior commitments.

“E&E architecture is short for Electric & Electronic, which references the portion of Honda’s e:Architecture EV platform that facilitates in-vehicle software and the UX/digital services connectivity, which will be updatable via OTA throughout the product’s life. Connectivity and digital services will be an increasing part of our business moving forward, and this new model is an important part of that direction.”

No mention was made in the Business Briefing of the coming Sony car that was to be a joint venture between Honda and the electronics giant. Sony and Honda had revealed a car at CES called Afeela.

Honda reiterated its plan to introduce 10 or more electric motorcycle models globally by 2025. The Business Briefing did not specify which of those ten e-motorcycles will be coming to the U.S., but when it announced them last September Honda said we would get “three or four fun models.” So look for those soon.