Rick Schostek, EVP of American Honda, said it best in a released statement: “Announcing a new battery electric vehicle isn’t exactly headline making news these days.” He’s right. There’s seemingly a new EV everyday (including an electric DeLorean, announced yesterday).
But this announcement is different.
General Motors and Honda today announced a partnership to co-develop affordable electric vehicles. These vehicles should hit North America in 2027. The partnership centers around using the General Motors Ultium EV platform (pictured above) and both automakers’ robust manufacturing capabilities.
“We plan to leverage these strengths to achieve a dramatic expansion in the sales of affordable, compact electric vehicles,” Schostek said. “The foundation of this collaboration is the strength of the relationship between GM and Honda, and the comfort level we have in joint development projects based on successful collaboration in other advanced technology projects focused on electric and autonomous vehicles.”
The exact terms of this partnership are not available at this time. However, Schostek notes that Honda is not, at this time, specifying which vehicles will use GM’s Ultium EV platform or Honda’s e:Architecture platform.
“GM and Honda will share our best technology, design and manufacturing strategies to deliver affordable and desirable EVs on a global scale, including our key markets in North America, South America and China,” said Mary Barra, GM chair and CEO, in a released statement. “This is a key step to deliver on our commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in our global products and operations by 2040 and eliminate tailpipe emissions from light duty vehicles in the U.S. by 2035. By working together, we’ll put people all over the world into EVs faster than either company could achieve on its own.”
This partnership is about scale. Together, Honda and GM have among the most robust manufacturing and distribution processes available and, depending on the exact terms, should be able to leverage these strengths to quickly and efficiently flood the market with EVs.
The two automakers have a history of working together, including a previous deal to co-develop the Honda Prologue and Acura’s first EV. The two automakers are also working together with Cruise, and are jointly developing the self-driving Cruise Origin.