EVWire brief: Honda announced that “due to the current slowdown in EV demand”, it has decided to postpone, by about two years, its $11B plan to build an 240,000 EVs/year plant and a 36GWh battery plant in Ontario, along with the battery supply chain in joint ventures.
“Honda will announce the specific timing of the resumption of the project once it has been finalized, while keeping a close eye on further market demands.”
Context:
The initial plan was to build an
An innovative Honda EV manufacturing plant (240,000 EVs/year);
A stand-alone Honda EV battery plant (36 GWh) in Alliston, Ontario;
A cathode active material and precursor (CAM/pCAM) processing plant through a joint venture partnership with POSCO;
A separator plant through a joint venture partnership with Asahi Kasei.
Honda expected the EV production to begin in the new plant in 2028, which we can now assume for 2030 if the plans still hold after the two-year pause:
"If the conditions were to change, at that point in time we have to revisit this. What happens after two years and the starting time of the project, we have to observe what is happening and ultimately make the decision.”
Meanwhile, Mibe also commented on the US plans and tariff situation:
“There is room to increase the production capacity in the United States, and we are trying to look into what will happen as a result of that. In the midterm, if the tariff measures are to be in place for a long time, then we will have to increase our production capacity in the United States.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on a press conference he would hold Honda and other automakers “accountable” for pulling some vehicle production out of Canada.
Honda also just held its earnings call for the Q4 and Fiscal Year that ended with March 31st. Honda expects its operating income to total 500 billion yen ($3.38B) in the next financial year to March 31, 2026, versus 1.21 trillion yen in the year that just ended — projecting a 59% drop in operating income. A large part of this projection is a 650 billion yen (~$4.45B) loss from tariffs, including 300B yen (~$2.06B) attributed specifically to tariffs on ~550,000 imported vehicles.
Source: Honda’s press release, Q4 earnings call slides (31-slide pdf), consolidated financial results (15-page pdf)
