Honda, GM Cancel Joint Project for Low-Cost EVs

­Well, so much for that. After much ado, Honda and GM have abruptly canceled their plans to release a joint platform for use in low-cost EVs.

Last year, Honda and GM declared their intention to use General Motors’ new Ultium battery platform to create an architecture for affordable electric vehicles in North America, South America, and China.

This was in addition to a 2020 announcement, where Honda would develop two new North American EVs with GM’s Ultium batteries.

And while those two EVs may still happen, the affordable EV project is apparently DOA. Ironically, the reason for its cancellation matches why EVs haven’t penetrated the general public – economics.

"After studying this for a year, we decided that this would be difficult as a business, so at the moment we are ending development of an affordable EV," said Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe. "GM and Honda will search for a solution separately. This project itself has been canceled."

In the first three quarters of 2023, a comparatively scant 6,920 Ultium-based EVs were delivered to customers, and according to Ars Technica, BrightDrop's Ultium battery production line in Canada was left idle due to a shortage of battery cells.

All of that led to disappointing returns, and apparently, a new direction. Last year, GM CEO Mary Barra had said that Ultium cells would drop below the $100/kWh barrier "early in the platform's life," but it was not to be.

Honda is still very much charging ahead (no pun intended) with electrification, but the average person may have to wait – the forthcoming Honda Prelude EV, for example, is almost certainly beyond the means of John Q Public.

Just a sad reminder that the electric revolution will only go so far if it’s the exclusive domain of the wealthy.