Honda Australia won’t sell an EV until around 2028, Europe in no hurry either

Once a pioneer of electrification, Honda is now in no hurry to get its slice of the burgeoning EV market – anywhere in the world.

Our earlier story, below, saw Honda Australia boss Carolyn McMahon talk up the virtues of petrol-electric hybrid technology for markets like Australia, where EVs are currently far more expensive than equivalent combustion models (in most cases), and charging infrastructure is far from expansive.

McMahon's position – unquestionably one directed by Japan – is at odds with the example of the many buyers moving to EVs, accomplishing most of their charging needs at home.

Her Europe-market counterpart, Katsuhisa Okuda, is parroting the same line. Speaking with the UK's Autocar [↗], Okuda said "The pace of our EV development is just the same as infrastructure development, in terms of public charging availability."

"We believe that in 2040 or 2050, the infrastructure will be well developed and then our many customers can enjoy EVs.

"Until then, our plug-in hybrid is a good option for commuting and for longer weekend drives. It’s very realistic and practical.”

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Forget the chicken and egg puzzle; Honda's chook has lost its head and nobody bothered to sit on the egg.

Honda has simply moved too slow to take a competitive position, falling back to the protest-too-much "it's not time" position all brands take when they've been caught without the product so many buyers are demanding – whether it's time or not.

To its credit, or perhaps more to the credit of the EU and its strict progressive regulations, Honda does at leave have some EVs in Europe: the impressive little E city hatch, and the new HR-V-based E:NY1 – the latter being the brand's first proper play at offering a volume-selling EV. It also has a new CR-V plug-in hybrid.

In the US, there's the handsome, all-electric, GM-partnered Prologue SUV, along with the bizarre Sony collaboration brand, Afeela.

Oh, and last month, it revealed a trio of electric concepts for China.

Australia will make do with the Civic Hybrid (have you seen one?), HR-V Hybrid and upcoming CR-V Hybrid for the next... decade, almost. Here in 2023, it's a lot of 'not for you', 'nothing', and 'later, maybe'.

Mike Stevens

March 2023: Honda won't offer a pure EV in Australia until at least 2028

Honda Australia says it isn’t behind on electric cars, despite this week revealing it won’t sell an EV here until at least 2028.

The brand is instead focusing on hybrid models, telling Wheels it will soon have a hybrid variant across every nameplate in its Aussie line-up.

“There’s a lot of interest in electrification, and I imagine you want to know what Honda’s doing with electrification,” said Honda Australia director Carolyn McMahon. “Our electrification strategy is all about using hybrid to bridge to electrification in the future.

“Our main focus at the moment is to expand the hybrid technology across every model. We will have a hybrid variant across each nameplate in our line-up in Australia. And that’s continuing to gain momentum. We’ve already seen Civic hybrid and HR-V hybrid, you’ll see Honda ZR-V hybrid and of course as we roll out other models they will all have hybrid variants as well.”

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“Our electrification strategy is all about using hybrid to bridge to electrification in the future. Our main focus at the moment is to expand the hybrid technology across every model."

The brand has confirmed a hybrid version of the new-generation CR-V will also be offered in Australia when it launches here later in 2023.

Choosing not to offer a fully electric model in Australia in mid-term means Honda will be one of the last mainstream brand’s in our market to embrace electrification. It’s a decision seemingly at odds with Honda’s hard-won reputation was a technology and engineering leader but McMahon says Honda isn’t behind when it comes to EVs.

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Honda Civic hybrid

“I wouldn’t say we’re behind; I’d say our strategy is hybrid at the moment,” McMahon said. “There’s a lot of other companies doing a lot in this space, but we’re very comfortable with our hybrid strategy right now.”

McMahon also flagged concerns around Australia’s readiness for electric cars, pointing to a lack of infrastructure and clear government policy as key issues.

“When we take a look at the Australian readiness or the Australian market’s ability to cope with electric we don’t think it’s quite yet there,” McMahon said. “The other critical point is our regional and rural Australia market and for us right now we think hybrid is right.

“That’s not to say Honda won’t be looking at electric vehicles in the future. You would have read about Honda’s global commitment to investing into electrification. They’re talking 30 models by 2030, so we're really excited and confident in the longer term that we’ll have models here in Australia. But in the medium term, we think we’ve got it right with hybrid.”

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McMahon clarified “medium term” means the next five years, opening the door for fresh EV models to join the Aussie line-up from 2028.

Globally, Honda is investing 5 trillion yen (AU$56 billion) into electrification, and this year it established a new division to speed up EV development.

Two electric sports cars and possibly an electric dual-cab ute are tipped to be part of Honda’s global EV rollout, and the brand has also entered into a joint venture with Sony – which has so far produced the electric Afeela EV prototype car, shown at America's Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year.

“I don’t want to mislead anyone – we will eventually get to EV, but for the moment we think expansion of our current model line-up with hybrid variants is the right way to go,” added McMahon.

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Sony-Honda Afeela prototype

As for which segment is the most likely to see Honda make the jump into electrification, McMahon agreed an SUV makes the most sense. She fell short, however, of suggesting the brand could react quickly to meet rising EV demand in our market.

“Obviously our focus is on the SUV market, but I don’t want to give the wrong impression that we’re actively monitoring and we’re ready to make some sort of quick reaction to that,” she said. “I mean 'monitoring' in a more general sense.

"We have our plan and we’ll stick to our plan, but we also know that in the background there’s development going on at Honda Motor so at the right time we’ll have a look at those 30 or so models that are being developed and we’ll see where the right spot is for us. It might be something completely different [to an SUV] and we’ll decide to do something different in the future.”

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