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Honda developing two electric vehicles, sales begin 2018

Honda has confirmed it is developing two electric vehicles, one of which will go on sale next year.


Takahiro Hachigo, Honda's CEO, held a press conference yesterday to outline some of the company's plans out to 2030. During the meeting, he revealed the company was hard at work on two electric cars.

One is being developed specifically for China, where the government is incentivising plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles in order to reduce the pollution problems it has in big cities. The Chinese EV will go on sale in 2018.

The second EV is being engineered for global markets, and will be introduced at a motor show during the northern autumn. This means an introduction at either the Frankfurt motor show in September or, more likely, the Tokyo Motor Show in October.

It's not clear if the production car or a concept version will make its debut this year. This also means it's uncertain when the global EV will go on sale.

Honda's new electric vehicles will be developed by the company's Electric Vehicle Development Division, which established Hachigo in October 2016.


Above: Honda Clarity EV.

These two EVs look likely to join the Clarity EV in its growing portfolio of electrified vehicles. Honda has stated on numerous occasions it expects by 2030 two-thirds of its sales will come from vehicles with partially or fully electric drivetrains.

At this year's New York motor show, Honda introduced plug-in hybrid and electric versions of its Clarity hatch, which was originally launched as a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.

Equipped with a 120kW/300Nm electric motor, and a 25.5kWh battery pack, the Clarity Electric has a range of just 129 kilometres.

Priced from US$35,000 ($46,700), the Clarity Electric is more expensive than the US$30,500 ($40,700) Nissan Leaf with a range of 172km, but cheaper than the US$37,495 ($50,100) Chevrolet Bolt with a 383km driving range.

The Clarity Electric will only be sold in a select number of US states, including California and Oregon. Honda expects the vast majority of the Clarity sales in the US to come from the plug-in hybrid variant.

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