"The Power of Dreams" is a slogan familiar to all Honda fans, and Honda has created countless legends in the spirit of dreams in the era of fuel vehicles.
In fact, Honda's history of building cars is the history of Honda's unbridled dreams.
At that time, Honda was already a champion in the motorcycle field, and suddenly thought of building a four-wheeled car. But Honda didn't build the car first, it went to F1 first. After winning the Formula 1 championship, Honda began to build its first civilian car.
Soichiro Honda had a bigger dream even before he built a car - to build an airplane.
On February 1, Honda Aircraft Company, a subsidiary of Honda's aircraft business, announced that it has successfully completed the delivery of 250 ultralight business jets HondaJet since delivery to customers in 2015.
Not only does the HondaJet global fleet reach 250 aircraft, but it also announced a commercialization decision for the HondaJet Echelon, a light business jet, in 2023, with initial manufacturing of the first aircraft expected to begin in 2024, with the first flight scheduled for 2026.
But no matter what happened in the past, in the minds of most Chinese car owners, Honda is clearly behind in the era of electric vehicles, although they are also trying to catch up.
For the full year of 2023, Honda China's cumulative sales volume will be 123420,000 units, down 1012%, which made the head of China, Masayuki Igarashi, publicly stated at the end of January that he would optimize personnel in China and accelerate the pace of transformation to pure electric vehicles. Although it is not a layoff, but a resignation without compensation, its attitude towards the Chinese market can be seen.
E. sold in Europeny1
Honda's path to electrification is very fascinating, in fact, as early as 1988, Honda engineers began to think about which technology will be the answer to the 21st century, so after five years of research, in 1993, Honda came up with the first real electric car EV-X.
At the same time, Honda is very "pragmatic", for example, the e., which is sold in EuropeThe NY1 is actually the first SUV developed for the Chinese market and produced in Guangben and Dongben on non-pure electric platforms.
Honda North America Prologue model.
The Prologue model sold by Honda in North America is a mid-size pure electric SUV with quite advanced technology and a beautiful design.
In the U.S., it sells for $40,000 (about $29.) before subsidiesRMB 200,000) or more.
But to put it bluntly, the Honda Prologue is a model built on the GM Ultium platform, which is the brother of the Cadillac Ruige that we are familiar with in China.
Cloaked in Honda's design, the core technology comes from GM.
Similarly, the battle over routes has always existed between all Japanese automakers. Honda is also developing hydrogen-fueled electric vehicles, and announced in early 2023 that it plans to launch a new FCEV in North America and Japan in 2024 based on the current CR-V and equipped with a next-generation fuel cell system developed with GM.
clarity fuel cell
Looking back at the development of hydrogen fuel cells by global car companies in the past 20 years, GM and Mercedes-Benz were the first to invest, followed by Japanese companies led by Honda, and continued to follow up until the launch of the mass-produced Clarity Fuel Cell.
In addition to the above, Honda has not even pulled down crossover cars, and the joint venture with Sony has attracted a lot of attention.
The new company was originally scheduled to launch its first all-electric model in 2025, and the new company will be responsible for all design, development, and sales except manufacturing. However, there will be no additional manufacturing plants, and Honda will take care of all production and manufacturing.
At the same time, on the road of complete self-development, Honda still has its own ideas.
A month ago, at CES 2024, Honda made its world premiere of the all-new "Honda 0" series of all-electric vehicles with a new "H" logo.
The concept cars in the Honda 0 series include the "Saloon" and "Space-Hub", which are Honda's global models. The new model will be launched in North America in 2026 and will be gradually rolled out to Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and South America.
So, what is "Honda 0"?
Honda has announced its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 and aims to achieve 100% of global sales of electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles by 2040.
That's why this all-electric concept car is called the "Honda 0" series, and it is expected to become a symbol of Honda's transformation. However, "0" does not mean zero emissions, but returns to the origin of car manufacturing and creates from scratch.
So what's new in mind for Honda?
The Saloon Concept.
Usually BEVs increase the range by increasing the battery capacity, which requires a larger body size to accommodate these batteries. Honda hopes to break through this limitation and propose a new R&D path - "thin, light, and wise".
Thin, light, and wise means slim, lightweight, and smart, and these are the five core values of Honda's concept car. In fact, this is inseparable from the mainstream values of Japan.
The thin approach is to reduce the floor height as much as possible, so that the electric vehicle platform can be flattened, and the body height can be lower, providing more room and possibilities for vehicle design. The benefits of this also result in excellent aerodynamic performance.
Light is to reduce weight, emphasizing the driving pleasure of electric vehicles with a light and smooth driving experience and low energy consumption, which is of course Honda's always building spirit.
Based on the low-profile design, the Honda 0" series of electric vehicles incorporates Honda's aerodynamic technology cultivated in racing to improve performance.
WISE is a software-defined vehicle", and the innovative intelligent technology gives the car intelligent life. At this point, Honda does not have an advantage and has to catch up.
And in order to achieve outstanding energy economy. The concept car will feature the e-Axle 2 system, which has excellent power conversion efficiency and packaging efficiency, and will include a lightweight, high-density battery pack.
In terms of charging time and battery safety, Honda's "Honda 0" series of pure electric vehicles, which Honda plans to launch in the second half of the 20s, will reduce the charging time from 15% to 80% to 10 to 15 minutes. After 10 years, the battery attenuation rate is controlled within 10%.
The Saloon and Space-Hub concepts
The Saloon is the flagship model of the "Honda 0" series.
The Saloon is the flagship model of the "Honda 0" series. With the dedicated platform for electric vehicles, the degree of design freedom has been expanded, and Honda's "mm Concept" continues to shine in the era of electric vehicles. At the same time, sustainable and environmentally friendly materials are used in the exterior and interior.
The Saloon Concept has a distinctive low-profile design and a spacious interior. In terms of interior, the central control adopts a simple and intuitive human-machine interface design. Honda's car-building mindset – crisp vision, intuitive UI control.
In terms of technology, the company will use steer-by-wire systems and Honda's posture control technology, which has been cultivated through robot development.
Space-Hub Concept.
Posture control technology will be a new field, and Honda says it can further upgrade the vehicle's dynamic control system, which can accurately reflect the driver's intentions in complex and diverse driving scenarios, bringing a new handling experience. The concepts are a bit like the Ferrari Supercar Driver Control System today.
The main focus of the space-hub concept is "interaction" – a vision of the interconnection between people and society. Therefore, it has a good riding space and a wide and comfortable field of vision, hoping to meet the needs of users in rich scenarios.
The Power of Dreams", used to be a familiar slogan for all Honda fans. Now, in addition to "The Power of Dreams", Honda has also launched the global brand slogan "How We Move You" to continue to create mobility products with dreams.
But far water can't quench the thirst of the near, in the era of electrification, can the power of Honda's dream continue? Jia Yueting, who has been suffocating for 9 years for his dream, is about to mass-produce the FF 91, and fans obviously hope that Honda will come up with a competitive model as soon as possible.