Honda and GM unveiled a business that expanded the production of ‘hydrogen fuel batteries’ and applied them to their own power plants for electric vehicles and large truck construction machinery, and on the 20th of last month, GM announced the breakdown of its fourth battery plant joint venture with LG Ensol.
Honda managing director Shinji Aoyama told reporters at an event in Tokyo, "We will begin production of hydrogen fuel battery systems in a joint venture with GM this year," adding, "We will gradually increase sales over 10 years to expand our hydrogen business." reported on the 1st.
Honda, which leads the production of its own fuel battery electric vehicle (FCEV), is trying to expand the use of hydrogen fuel batteries as a new power system to large engines such as large trucks, buses, commercial vehicles and construction machinery, as well as stationary power plants.
Japan's Honda Motor Company announced on the 1st that it aims to expand its new hydrogen battery system from 2,000 units per year in 2025 to 60,000 units per year in 2030.
Tetsuya Hasebe, general manager of Honda's hydrogen business development, said on the day that the "next-generation" system aims to more than double durability and reduce costs by two-thirds compared to existing fuel cell systems, saying, "Commercial vehicles are becoming more and more global." But we're going to see electrification just like passenger cars," he told Reuters.
As for the difference between the two systems, he explained, “It will lead to the difference between battery-powered trucks and fuel cell-powered trucks.”
Honda put on public display at its Tokyo headquarters in March 2016 the Honda Clarity system vehicle as Honda Motor's first mass-market fuel battery vehicle.
On the 20th of last month, GM announced that it would cancel the construction plan for the fourth joint venture with LG Ensol.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the same day, citing a source, that the construction of the fourth battery joint venture plant was terminated without an agreement between management negotiations between the two companies.
The WSJ said, "LG Ensol's lukewarm attitude toward additional US investment is one of the reasons for the breakdown in negotiations," and GM said, "We will definitely build a fourth battery plant on US soil." It is reportedly negotiating with more than 100 other potential joint venture partners.
"We have little concern about the potential impact of recent price cuts from Tesla and Ford on popular electric vehicle models," said Paul Jacobson, GM's chief financial officer. We are seeing strong demand,” he said.
Unlike thousands of layoffs at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in the United States, GM did not lay off 167,000 employees in its financial subsidiaries and cruise robotaxi divisions.
“The U.S. auto market remains robust,” he predicted, “U.S. car and light truck sales will increase by 15 million this year from 13.9 million last year.”
GM's operating profit reached a record $14.5 billion last year, and just before the earnings announcement, it announced that it would jointly develop in Nevada in response to China-led lithium mining with a $650 million investment in Lithium America.
“There is no need for GM to cut the price of electric vehicles in response to Tesla,” said GM CEO Mary Barra. .
GM plans to only produce about 400,000 electric vehicles in North America by the first half of 2024, and expects electric vehicle sales to reach $50 billion, or about 22% of total revenue, in 2025.