CES 2024: Honda unveils new EV series with two concepts
Honda has debuted its next-gen EVs at the CES event in Las Vegas.
The carmaker is launching a new ‘Honda 0 Series’ line-up of electric vehicles for global markets in 2026, starting from the North American market.
The Japanese brand says its development team has gone back to the starting point of Honda and reconsidered what kind of EVs it wants to create in the coming era.
It’s resulted in a new approach to EV development, represented by five core values and summed up the ‘Thin, Light and Wise’ tagline.
Rather than having to develop a “thick and heavy” vehicle due to an increase in battery capacity the vehicle has to carry to secure enough range, and the large body and platform necessary to accommodate such battery capacity, the carmaker says its future EVs will blend artistic design, safety, space, joy of driving and outstanding efficiency.
The Saloon is the flagship concept model of the Honda 0 Series and will further advance the carmaker’s ‘M/M*1’ (man maximum, machine minimum) concept in the era of EVs, pursuing the ultimate ‘joy of driving’ in the EV era. It features low-slung sporty styling and developments such as steer-by-wire, posture control and an interior instrument panel with a human-machine interface (HMI) that enables simple and intuitive operations.
The Space-Hub people carrier concept has been developed under the theme of “augmenting people’s daily lives”. It’s designed to deliver a spacious cabin with excellent visibility, providing “a flexible space that immediately accommodates what the users want to do, and becomes a hub that connects people to people and people to society, generating mutual resonance with each other”.
Honda’s new EV line-up will also tackle charging concerns, offering “stress-free charging performance and worry-free battery performance that minimises degradation over many years of use”. This includes cutting the time taken for fast-charging from 15% to 80% to about 10-15 minutes. Honda is also working to limit the degradation of battery capacity (range) to less than 10% after 10 years of use.
The first model of the Honda 0 Series will start to roll out globally from 2026, starting in North America and moving to Japan, Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East and South America.
The new Honda 0 Series will support the brand’s target to offer 100% EV and FCEV sales globally by 2040.w
Natalie Middleton
Natalie has worked as a fleet journalist for over 20 years, previously as assistant editor on the former Company Car magazine before joining Fleet World in 2006. Prior to this, she worked on a range of B2B titles, including Insurance Age and Insurance Day.
