Toshihiro Mibe, Honda Motor’s President, lays out electrification plans for all products, including motorcycles
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. President, Toshihiro Mibe, held an inaugural press conference where he lays out Honda’s electrification plans for all products, including motorcycles by 2024. The company plans to (1)create a full scale environmental initiative, (2)electrify automobile products, (3)electrify motorcycle products, (4)invest in fuel-cell research and, to top it all, (5)invest in safety initiatives as well.
In order to keep making progress in these big environmental and safety initiatives, Honda plans to invest aggressively in R&D. The company wants to invest approximately $45.7 Billion US (5 trillion yen) as R&D expenses over the next six years. That will include a full move towards zero carbon impact for all the companies activities.
Honda has such a wide range of products, that when put together, makes them the world’s largest power unit manufacturer. We have recently covered the consortium for swappable batteries formed in collaboration with some of the leading companies in the industry, and Honda has already been spotted for patent registrations for what we expect to be an electric CBR 125.
In addition to the electrification of motorcycle and automobile products, the company will expand the range of electrified products with Honda Mobile Power Pack swappable battery and expand utilization of renewable energy by enabling infrastructure-linked smart power operations.
This shows the Eco-system approach that Honda is taking, to ensure a smooth transition to electric mobility, with the right infrastructures, the ability to reuse and recycle materials and reducing or eliminating their carbon impact.
Honda is taking an obligation to address challenges in the areas of the environment and safety, and invest heavily in them over the coming years. At the same time the company will push its R&D to become a leader in advancements for mobility, power-unit, energy and robotics.
The ambitious goal of the company is to reach carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities Honda is involved in by 2050, will require effort and ingenuity from Honda. Striving to get “zero environmental impact” of both products and the entire product lifecycle including corporate activities, the focus on “three-pillars” for these initiatives will be:
- Carbon neutrality
- Clean energy
- Resource circulation
Honda’s safety initiative will strive for zero traffic collision fatalities involving the company’s motorcycles and automobiles globally by 2050. The company feels that the major challenge they will face toward this goal is how to eliminate motorcycle collision fatalities, especially in emerging countries as they see it. Since many motorcycle accident fatalities involve automobiles, Honda will strive to apply their ADAS (advanced driver-assistance system) to all new automobile models we introduce in developed countries by 2030.
The smart systems for alerting, preventing and assisting the driver can in fact prove to be one of the major game changers for motorcycle riders, since simple alerts can be life saving, and much more so alerting a near by automobile that is steering away from his lane would help get rid of many accidents that occur due to lack of attention by drivers. The plan for Honda is to fully integrate smart systems into their vehicles and help increase road safety for all users.
Source: Honda