Honda Just Joined Forces With Hitachi For A £34m Electric Motor Venture
Like it or not, it seems inevitable that the future of cars will revolve around electric motors. So, this latest move from Honda shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
It’s just established a joint venture company with Hitachi Automotive Systems (HAS), which will result in the “development, manufacture and sales of motors for electric vehicles.” The deal follows a ‘memorandum of understanding’ signed back in February, and a joint venture agreement made in March.
The companies have put five billion yen (£34 million) into the company, with HAS taking a controlling 51 per cent stake. The work on the motors will all be done at Hitachi Automotive’s base in Hitachinaka-shi, Ibaraki Prefecture.
The news comes a few weeks after it was suggested the next NSX might go all electric. Around the same time, Honda announced its intentions for two thirds of its line-up to be made up of electric vehicles via its ‘2030 Vision’ plan.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
E-Tec just kicked in, yo!
But it will fail like Honda’s F1…
Let’s hope Hitachi know more than Honda when it comes to reliability
Why people downvote??
So I guess you can say that Honda HAS decided to go electric, which isn’t quite shocking.
Yes yes yes
aww, all the butthurt EV haters giving you downvotes. real mature, CT.
So hilarious to see manufacturers waste time on EVs, however something good can still come out of this - some torque.
I absolutely agree, electric cars offer more torque than diesels or petrols. I hope they make it powerful and good looking like the BMW i8. (Even if they need to make it a hybrid.)
Hardly a waste of time.
By 2020, 45% of all new cars produced in Europe will be hybrid
By 2030, 75% of all new cars produced in Europe will be all electric
By 2050, fuel is likely to be scarce enough to be not available to general public
Car enthusiasts need to face the fact that petrol/diesel ICU’s are dying
So if Hitachi inserts some magic into Hondas lineup, will we have a “Honda Wand” at some point?
As soon as I saw the name Hitachi I knew some one had to make a joke like this I was ready lol
Hybrid s2000 ???
Kind of old news… but still really interesting! Have you seen the electric motor they made without any rare earth metals?? It’s easier to make and much more friendly to the planet to produce too!
Hopefully they will be more reliable than their HDD!
Soo Mclaren Honda Hitachi will probably not happen