Honda CEO Bucks Trend, Says He Prefers Hybrids Over EVs

It’s not every day that you get the chief executive officer of a major automaker coming out against fully electric vehicles, at least as far as the near-future is concerned.

Yet that’s exactly what Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo did in a recent interview with Autonews. Going forward, he said that his company will rely heavily on hybrid models, stating that Honda’s current objective is fuel efficiency, as opposed to electrification.

“I believe hybrid vehicles will play a critical role,” he said, when asked about electrification. “The objective is not electrification, per se, but improving fuel efficiency. And we believe hybrid vehicles are the way to abide by different environmental regulations.”

Also read: All-New Honda Jazz Is Hybrid-Only In Europe, Launches In Mid-2020

When the interviewer pushed for clarification regarding fully-electric vehicles, Hachigo went as far as to fire a few warning shots at the industry.

“Are there really customers who truly want them?” – he asked while referring to EVs. “I’m not so sure because there are lots of issues regarding infrastructure and hardware. I do not believe there will be a dramatic increase in demand for battery vehicles, and I believe this situation is true globally. There are different regulations in different countries, and we have to abide by them. So it’s a must to continue r&d. But I don’t believe it will become mainstream anytime soon.”

As for autonomous tech, the Japanese carmaker is clearly interested in a slow approach for that department as well.

“Our plan is to cascade Honda Sensing down to mass-market models such as the Civic and Accord. Instead of going for a setup that requires expensive radars or lidars, we would like to develop these functions in an affordable price range. When it comes to Level 3, you will need a more expensive ADAS system to realize this. We will be cautious in trying to identify what vehicle model will be optimal for this. So, I don’t have any timeline or any vehicles decided for Level 3 autonomous driving.”

Finally, when asked about his company’s future with all these mergers and consolidations happening within the industry, Hachigo made it clear that Honda isn’t interested in any capital tie-up, as their goal is to maintain independence.

“Basically, we do not have any intention of having a capital tie-up. The reason is, once we have a capital tie-up, that other party will have some voice in our management, which means in some instances, we may not be able to move in the direction we want.”

“So how will we survive in this environment? One example is our relationship with GM, which is a win-win collaboration and not a capital tie-up. We work together on hydrogen fuel cell stacks, electric car components as well as Cruise. We are open to this type of partnerships. We would like to be capital independent.”