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Honda to electrify line-up in Europe by 2023

Honda is planning a shift to electric power in its European cars before 2023, as part of wide-ranging plans to reduce its carbon footprint.


Speaking with the UK's Autocar, Honda's senior vice president Ian Howells said the company's European line-up will no longer contain pure internal-combustion-engined cars by the end of 2022.

“It will be a combination of full electric and hybrid,” Mr Howells explained.

“Obviously, if the legislation starts to move as we approach 2035, or transitions away from hybrid as well, then we’ll move our technology away from that.”

The Honda executive added that the company's strategy goes beyond electrified power and into other alternative fuel sources.

"There’s a role to play for e-fuels, for biomass, for hydrogen, to some degree for conventional fuels and also batteries," he said.

Mr Howells also told the publication that both hybrids and full-electric cars have their limitations.

“[Electric cars are] a third to 50 per cent more expensive than a conventional or hybrid vehicle," he said.

“[Hybrids] don’t take us the full way and that’s why we do see this as a transitioning or bridging type of technology to get us to the point at which the technology behind the batteries and the infrastructure are both in place to move forward to offering mass personal mobility with a new type of energy carrier.”

In Australia, Honda offers hybrid options on the Accord sedan, but otherwise its only all-electric production car is the Honda E, which has so far only been confirmed for Europe and Japan.

Honda is one of many manufacturers globally setting deadlines for their transition to electric power.

In October 2020, Kia announced it would launch seven new electric models by 2027, while Toyota, Lexus and Subaru have co-developed an electric vehicle architecture that's expected to form the basis of a raft of incoming models over the next few years.

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Susannah Guthrie

Susannah Guthrie has been a journalist for over a decade, covering everything from world news to fashion, entertainment, health and now cars. Having previously worked across titles like The New Daily, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, People Magazine and Cosmopolitan, Susannah now relishes testing family cars with the help of her husband and two-year-old son.

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