In November 2022, I sat across from Honda’s CEO, Toshihiro Mibe. New on the scene and eager to own the future, the CEO talked a big game about Honda’s commitment to carbon neutrality and electrification. The linchpin of this transformation, he said, would be the company’s partnership with General Motors. In his words, this wasn’t a just a badge-job plan to build the Honda Prologue; it was a multi-year partnership between “equals” to develop affordable EVs and conquer tomorrow’s auto market.
Three and a half years later, that joint affordable EV plan is a distant blip, another failed launch from a company that still hasn’t built a modern, long-range EV itself, let alone an affordable one. When the plan changed in 2024, again, it this time hinged around the 0 Series, a new software-defined vehicle family planned to encompass three U.S.-built models by the end of 2026.
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