Honda to develop two GM-platformed electric vehicles by 2024

MANILA: Are you ready to ride a Honda electric vehicle (EV) based on a General Motors platform? Ready or not, it’s coming in 2024.

Honda has announced it is working with General Motors and will use the latter’s flexible global EV platform powered by Ultium batteries to develop two new EVs that are set for release sometime in 2024.

The exterior and interior of the news EVs will be designed exclusively by Honda while GM will engineer the platform to support the driving characteristics of the Japanese automaker.

Production of the vehicles will be done in GM plants in the US with the initial target of selling these EVs in North America.

This is but another partnership in the longstanding relationship between the two manufacturers. They’ve worked on fuel cells and the Cruise Origin, and have also collaborated on battery module development in 2018.

"This collaboration will put together the strength of both companies, while combined scale and manufacturing efficiencies will ultimately provide greater value to customers. This expanded partnership will unlock economies of scale to accelerate our electrification roadmap and advance our industry-leading efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We are in discussions with one another regarding the possibility of further extending our partnership," said Rick Schostek, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

Two of the features of the upcoming EV from Honda are GM’s OnStar safety and security services that will be integrated with HondaLink, and GM’s hands-free advanced driver-assist technology.

"This agreement builds on our proven relationship with Honda, and further validates the technical advancements and capabilities of our Ultium batteries and our all-new EV platform. Importantly, it is another step on our journey to an all-electric future and delivering a profitable EV business through increased scale and capacity utilization. We have a terrific history of working closely with Honda, and this new collaboration builds on our relationship and like-minded objectives," said Doug Parks, GM executive vice president of global product development, purchasing and supply chain.

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