Opinion: Honda killing its EVs is the most staggering car news ever… here’s why

In October 2024, I took Honda up on an invite to go to the future. The way forward for Honda, of electrical vehicles… heck, the way forward for the total car world. The epicentre was naturally Japan, which to a Westerner all the time appears like a portal to a world 30 years extra superior than our personal. Honda is normally secretive. This was thrilling. What I used to be introduced with wasn’t a brand new car, however a brand new philosophy of car making. A philosophy which, 18 months later in early 2026, Honda has spectacularly binned.

Make no mistake, whilst Porsche records a 92 per cent drop in annual profits, and Volkswagen admits it’ll sack 50,000 employees by 2030, Honda’s hero-to-Zero second is staggeringly, eye-wateringly critical. Honda had performed it very cool on the EV entrance, insisting it wasn’t proper to plunge headlong into Tesla-chasing till it might engineer rivals in an altruistic, virtuous-circle kinda manner. Its dabble with electrical metropolis vehicles (in the cute, expensive Honda e) had been a noble however unprofitable flop. We had been informed many classes had been discovered.

The end result was to be the 0 Series: a household of radically completely different electrical vehicles named after the 0 Series Shinkansen bullet prepare, so-called as a result of it was a ‘reset to zero’ second for public transport that took the remainder of the world about 30 years. In the UK, we’re nonetheless arguing about how you can make quicker trains go beneath somebody’s backyard. Meanwhile, the bullet trains have carried 6.5 billion individuals since 1964 and by no means had a single deadly accident.

When the Japanese set their minds to a daring engineering problem, they’re a drive to be reckoned with: mighty but meticulous. As modern as they’re thoughtful. So the 0 Series vehicles had been radical. Instead of merely having the largest doable battery, or the slipperiest physique, we had been informed (repeatedly) that the vehicles had been shot via with one mantra: ‘thin, light, wise.’

‘Thin’ meant engineering slimmer batteries to maintain roof top low (decreasing drag) with out consuming via the ground (growing house). The armoured case round the battery loved the identical strategy. Honda demonstrated colossal robotic presses that made battery circumstances six per cent thinner than rivals, but providing higher power. These mega-pressings had been usual from 5 items of steel, as an alternative of 60 or extra in rivals.

The machines required had been monumental and costly. They lived in new factories, populated with new employees with new coaching. No expense was spared. I walked round these labyrinthine factories, dwarfed by their {hardware}, mouth agape at the funding. It was like an area programme.  Same goes for the propulsion.  Honda created inverters 40 per cent smaller than the business customary. New motors provided 17 per cent much less inside friction than its earlier choices. Honda stated this gave 12 further miles of vary, which in flip negated having the smaller battery. ‘Wise’.

So, the virtuous circle went spherical and spherical. Roomy cabins because of slender powertrains, which saved weight, which elevated effectivity and sped up charging. And saved value, which lessened costs. A decrease, lighter, quicker car is a extra enjoyable car to drive. Honda additionally promised all-new steer-by-wire, and superior autonomous driver aids. A brand new considering for Honda. You’ll word none of this is low cost to do.

And this wasn’t for some form of one-off flagship. Honda insisted the 0 Series was a rising household. First, a rakish saloon and a blocky SUV. Then a pair extra crossovers and even a giant three-row XXL mannequin. The 0 Series was Honda’s reply to the BMW Neue Klasse, now underway with the spectacular iX3 however set to spawn 40 – sure, forty – new fashions by the finish of the first wave.

But there was an alarm bell ringing. On one slide introduced by one more conscientious bowing engineer, we had been informed the first 0 Series fashions would function a battery between 80 and 90kWh in capability, with an EPA vary estimate of round 300 miles. Though America’s EPA check is harsher than Europe’s lab lie-detector, 300 miles ain’t a lot. It’s a couple of hundred miles lower than a Tesla Model 3 initiatives with a smaller battery. Honda was on par with what BMW offers you in an i5. But the i5 is old-tech. It’s a combustion car kitted out with batteries, not a cutting-edge shockwave of latest concepts and blue-sky considering.

But that’s not the cause Honda has given for this cataclysmic halt order. It’s blamed geopolitical tensions, Trump tariffs, and cooling demand for EVs and governments wobbling on deadlines to go all-in on EVs. All of which is honest sufficient, I imply: are you able to keep in mind the final time you went every week with out listening to the phrases ‘unprecedented crisis’ in the news? We’ve been in continuous tumult since Covid.

And mere months away from full-scale 0 Series manufacturing, with factories already tooled up, sellers educated, brochures printed and years of R&D ready to be paid again, Honda has determined that writing off one thing in the ballpark of two.5 trillion Yen – or a cool £11.5 billion – is much less of a threat than attempting to really promote some EVs.

Having seen first-hand the scale of this operation again in 2024, that’s a reasonably terrifying thought. Especially as related conversations can be occurring at car corporations in France, Germany, Italy, Japan… in all places besides China, actually.

Hate to sound like a doom-monger, however there’s been a creeping sense of dread for some time that the car business would ultimately lose a giant fish. A family identify won’t survive. Question is, on this fiercely unforgiving panorama, is anybody too huge to fail?