Yahoo Autos Honda building new 'mid- to large-size' EV for U.S. by 2025 as part of its fight back
Honda held an annual business briefing this week where new CEO Toshihiro Mibe expanded on the automaker's new motivated push into electric vehicles. One of the prime points for our market is the arrival of a mid- to large-sized electric vehicle by 2025, a year earlier than Honda's plans previously indicated. This vehicle will sit on an EV architecture Honda's developing in-house, meaning this is a wholly separate entity from the coming Honda Prologue (pictured) and Acura ZDX crossovers that Honda's developing with GM and that will sit on GM's Ultium architecture. The EV coming in 2025, being mid- to large-sized, is likely going to be a three-row crossover substantially more meaty than the Passport-sized Prologue.
The model will run on another in-house development called E&E, the Electric & Electronic automotive software platform. Honda's already nominated its first global head of user experience, plucked from a Silicon Valley company Honda bought in 2019. The software will not only act as foundation for the software-defined vehicle and serve as infotainment for driver and passenger, it's already envisioned as an ongoing profit center for additional software and applications.
The business briefing comes a week after Auto Shanghai, where Honda debuted four new EVs for the Chinese market. Able to compare wares on adjacent stands, Honda COO Shinji Aoyama admitted to Automotive News that "We were overwhelmed by the Chinese" in terms of the progress the neighbor nation has made in the EV space. Mibe said, "They are ahead of us, even more than expected," adding the understatement, "We recognized we are slightly lagging behind, and we are determined to turn the tables."
