Honda Motor Co. is considering investing nearly 2 trillion yen (Note: currently about 99 billion RMB) to build an electric vehicle factory in Canada, according to a report by Nikkei on Sunday. , the project may include in-house production of batteries.
Image source Pixabay
According to sources, this project will become one of the largest investments in Honda’s history. However, Honda declined to comment, saying only that it had no information to disclose at the moment. Japan’s second-largest automaker has had a slow start in electric vehicles.
An Industry Canada spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters that reports that Honda may make a major investment in Canada highlight the high quality of the country’s workforce and the strength of its industry.
Battery-powered vehicles accounted for less than 0.5% of Honda’s global sales of about 2.8 million vehicles in the first nine months of 2023, according to Honda data.
Honda is considering multiple potential plant locations, including one near its existing auto plant in Ontario, the Nikkei reported. Honda is expected to make a final decision by the end of this year, and the new plant could start production as early as 2028.
Honda has previously announced plans to begin producing and selling electric vehicles in North America in 2026 based on its new Honda e:Architecture platform. The company also announced in 2022 that it would jointly build a $4.4 billion battery factory in Ohio with partner LG Energy Solution.
It is worth noting that Honda announced in October 2023 that it would abandon plans to jointly develop affordable electric vehicles with General Motors, after the two companies had agreed to invest $5 billion in cooperation to fight Tesla.
