We have simultaneously enhanced every element of EV development to the maximum possible degree, including range, charging times, price, and noise reduction. This unprecedented project has also significantly evolved vehicle dynamic performance, which is one of the essential attractions of our cars.
The challenge for the next-generation BEV team, who won the President’s Award, began with “an unachievable goal.”
The secrets to its success were a team with a select few members who transcended the fields in which they work to resonate with each other, along with Honda’s unique organizational culture.
Achieve the unachievable: A team’s determination in struggling to tackle a seemingly impossible aim
The goals with which the team were presented when the project was launched seemed beyond the realms of possibility: realize longer range and shorter charging times at an affordable price. Achieve performance that surpasses higher segments than our existing models, without sacrificing low noise and operational stability. And lastly, significantly reduce the weight of the car body. These requirements contradicted all conventional theories.
As one team member later confessed, “We all thought this had to be a joke.”
The target values for low noise (Noise and Vibration (NV) performance) were so high as to suggest a top-of-the-range luxury car. The conventional theory says that increasing the weight of a car to make it quieter is common practice. However, with this project, weight reduction and low noise had to coexist.
A level of dynamic performance was required that exceeded that of a C-segment SUV, but in the price range for a B-segment car. Faced with an assignment that overturned all accepted practice in relation to existing cars, from the initial stages, the word “hopeless” became an unofficial buzzword within the team.
But setting these targets was also an approach that typifies Honda. Rather than saying of a seemingly hopeless task, “This can’t be done,” a culture in which everyone continually contemplates how something can be achieved is rooted in Honda R&D.
One of the key points in achieving this challenge was the composition of the team. Elite engineers chosen as representative of their fields of expertise were gathered together, and joined forces as a single team that existed separately from individual departments. This team embodied the flat organization that forms the basis for Honda’s research institutes, and the resulting car transcended the disciplines for which individual members are responsible.
Each member fulfilled multiple roles, and coming to grips with adjacent areas of expertise became an everyday occurrence. Design personnel cooperated with dynamic performance personnel to assess the results of analysis and actual vehicle tests, and devise evaluation and a specific structure. This crossed borders to generate a series of new approaches.
Team members were unanimous in their praise for each other, saying, “There were no takers in the team. We were all givers.”
The culture they shared is also the DNA that has long been rooted in Honda’s research and development. An atmosphere in which team members were not afraid to make mistakes, judgment that could function through individual discretion, and above all, a set of values that involved “prioritizing the car above their own interests” all exerted an influence on this organizational project.
Breaking down the barriers between disciplines: Evolution born from working together
In this way, cooperation that transcended different fields of expertise arose naturally in the next-generation BEV research team that was assembled for this project. With suspension design, NV performance, which had tended to be retrofitted in the past, was given top priority at the design stage, and a new principle arose in which characteristic values were determined with requirements for the car body as a starting point.
As the team member in charge of NV says, “We gave shape to an accumulation of all the things that we had wanted to do,” and this exchange of ideas about evaluation and design created “an evolving loop.” Discussions progressed with team members sharing their concepts of how the suspension would move—concepts that had not been possible in previous development and were unprecedentedly far reaching.
As development proceeded in this way, team members say they shared a strong sense that there was no way they could fail. Even if a hypothesis ended in failure, with no time to feel disheartened, a new theory was proposed, and if that did not work either, it was immediately replaced with their next strategy. They worked quickly enough to build a new model in just six months, making repeated improvements while keeping things simple and straightforward. A way of making progress was established that was not restricted by conventional division into sections. This involved crossing the boundaries between different disciplines and exchanging feedback, while collaborating to design components for each other.
No one declared that they had “accomplished” what needed to be done in their particular field. Rather, everyone focused on the project as a whole to the very end, with the sense that “they would not feel secure until the car was completed.” The entire team had consciously cross-disciplinary discussions, and with the approach of “finding optimal solutions not for individuals but for everyone,” struck a balance between weight reduction, NV performance, and dynamic performance.
In this context, the body design evolved with consideration for the whole car as a structure that was not limited to the conventional concept of strengthening the frame, and included elements such as the doors. They also succeeded in producing an innovative system for the suspension. The team member in charge of NV introduced a simulation tool that had not been used in the past, and established a new approach by visualizing detailed phenomena.
“Likes” creating a spark: Moments that altered a hopeless task into the conviction that the project was a success
An atmosphere in which team members praised each other by exchanging “likes” was particularly striking. Performance evaluators only responded with a “like” when they saw a new hypothesis brought in by designers as being genuinely beneficial. That one word was not just an endorsement but also a signal that motivated designers to move on to the next challenge. As one team member says, “The moment a performance evaluator said they liked what I had done, it filled me with inspiration.” This culture of coming to grips with the project and having a positive attitude toward challenges while respecting each other’s areas of expertise created a domino effect of enthusiasm in the team as a whole.
After the only instance when somebody complained “This is a joke, right?” about an ambitious target, the mood immediately switched to one of “Okay, how can we achieve this?” There certainly were times when there was a sense of hopelessness, but the team was united by their shared belief in working “for the good of the car,” and never allowed the atmosphere between them to become tense. This mood surely helped an end product that appeared to go against accepted practice to be turned into a reality.
The team’s confidence that they could achieve their goal was boosted when preparations for appraisal were complete, all the team members had test driven the finished car, and they became convinced “they had created something good.” During this process, they gained a real sense of the differences between the prototype they had initially created and the finished car, and all shared their reactions to those changes.
As they continued to ride in the car after the appraisal meeting was over, some suggested “they change the tire size and run the car in a sportier way.” Based on how well the car had turned out, its potential was so outstanding that the team felt “it may also be possible to release it as a sports car largely unaltered.”
Later, when the research report was presented to Honda’s management team, a version of the car was unveiled with the addition of flamboyant aerodynamic parts, and a highly praised, sportier model was born. This experience helped convince the team that “they had created a truly amazing vehicle.”
Ongoing evolution: An even higher level that anticipates the future
When the team were told they had received the President’s Award, a quiet mood of surprise and dawning realization spread among them. “At first, I couldn’t quite take in what had happened,” recalls one member.
Many of them saw the award as being “unimaginably distant”: something only given to projects that deliver world-first achievements. Through receiving this award, they were reminded of the significance of the project and of the challenges they had overcome.
Those feelings of surprise and personal involvement simultaneously transformed into a great sense of pride. The President’s Award is particularly special, even within Honda as a whole, so for every team member, being chosen in recognition of their efforts was demonstrable proof that “they were not mistaken in what they had done.”
Once a line had been drawn under the research stages of the next-generation BEV, it began moving toward mass production. Now that a series of innovations have been achieved, the team members are united in their immediate response to the question of whether there is further potential for the BEV.
“There is nothing but potential!”
This simple statement perfectly encapsulates where the team is now and their resolve for the future.
“We are already moving toward our next challenge,” says one member. “When the car goes into mass production, for us, it will be an existing technology.” From the moment they completed the challenge, preparations had begun for the next supposedly “unachievable goal.” In the context of competing with rival manufacturers, if Honda stops evolving, it will be left behind in the blink of an eye. That preparedness is revealed in the phrase “all we can do is continue to evolve every day.”
Even after receiving the prestigious President’s Award, the team remains firmly focused on the future. The end product on this occasion is not the goal, it is nothing more than the starting line in a race toward further evolution.
