Honda's $11 Billion Investment in Canadian EV Production
Honda Motor Co. is making a significant move towards electric vehicles with a planned $11 billion investment in Canada. This investment, in partnership with joint ventures, will focus on building out EV production capacity to meet future demand in North America.
The company has begun evaluating the requirements for constructing an EV plant and a separate battery plant in Ontario, where it already operates two manufacturing facilities employing 4,200 people. Honda expects to add at least 1,000 more workers for the two new facilities.
Once fully operational, the EV plant will have an annual production capacity of 240,000 vehicles, while the battery plant will have a capacity of 36 GWh per year. Additionally, plans are underway for a cathode active material and precursor processing plant through a joint venture with POSCO Future M Co., and a separator plant through a joint venture with Asahi Kasei Corp.
Honda anticipates EV production to commence in 2028. This follows a recent announcement of collaboration with Nissan on developing electric vehicles and auto intelligence technology.
The global automotive industry is experiencing a rapid shift towards electric vehicles, driven by concerns about emissions and climate change. This shift is leading automakers to focus on batteries and motors instead of traditional gas engines.
However, Japanese automakers have fallen behind rivals like Tesla and BYD in developing EVs, partly due to their historical success with combustion engine vehicles.
Meanwhile, Toyota has announced a $1.4 billion investment in its Princeton, Indiana plant to produce a battery electric SUV, creating up to 340 jobs. This follows another recent announcement of a $1.3 billion investment to produce a separate battery electric SUV at its Kentucky facility.