Honda took to the stage at Geneva today to announce the further acceleration of its electrification ambitions. The company announced its intention to move 100 per cent of its European sales to electrified powertrains by 2025. This new ambition builds on the brand’s 2017 aim of two-thirds of its sales to be electrified by 2025, and places it firmly at the forefront of Honda’s global electrification shift announced as part of its 2030 vision.  

Speaking at today’s press conference, Tom Gardner, Senior Vice President, Honda Motor Europe, said, “…since we made that first pledge in March 2017, the shift towards electrification has gathered pace considerably. Environmental challenges continue to drive demand for cleaner mobility. Technology marches on unrelenting and people are starting to shift their view of the car itself.”

Further proof of Honda’s electrification ambition was seen in the shape of the Honda e Prototype. Unveiled for the first time at Geneva, the car previews Honda’s first production battery electric vehicle for the European market. Positioned as an urban commuter, the car features a competitive range of over 200km and a ‘fast charge’ functionality providing 80% range in just 30 minutes. It also features trademark Honda driving dynamics with a sporty rear wheel drive configuration. The production version of the Honda e Prototype will be unveiled later this year. Customers can register for updates on the Honda website now, and will be able to place a reservation for the car in selected European markets in early summer.
To date Honda have received 15,000 registrations of interest for the Honda e Prototype.

Early in 2019, Honda successfully launched the all-new CR-V Hybrid, featuring its two-motor i-MMD full hybrid technology. Honda expects full hybrid technology to play a key role in meeting its aims of 100% electrification by 2025.

Honda took the opportunity of its Geneva press conference to share the first details of its developing energy management solutions business for Europe.  This announcement builds on the Power Manager bi-directional charging concept first shown at Frankfurt motor show in 2017.

Honda intends to build a portfolio of energy management products and services offering a comprehensive solution for both EV customers and service operators in Europe.

Tom Gardner said, “This is a significant move for Honda, our intention is to deliver industry-leading innovation by launching energy services…to create additional value for power system operators and EV customers alike.”

Honda has been working with EVTEC to further develop its bi-directional Honda Power Manager technology (compatible with battery-electric vehicles, such as the Honda e Prototype) and will plan to offer a commercial version in the coming years.
Honda has also announced an agreement with two external partners:

-Moixa, a company who specialise in ‘resource aggregator‘ technology, allowing customers to benefit from sharing the control and capacity of their EV battery
-Ubitricity, a leading supplier of charging solutions, including an innovative approach to on-street charging in urban areas

The next step is to embark upon feasibility studies for its technologies in London, UK and Offenbach, Germany. Further developments are expected to be announced later this year.

Moixa (www.moixa.com) is the UK’s leading smart battery company. Moixa makes smart batteries and GridShare software to manage smart charging of batteries and electric vehicles. GridShare® manages over 50MWh of residential batteries across 6000 homes in the UK and Japan – forming one of the world’s largest virtual power plants. The software uses AI to learn and optimise daily charging, leveraging low carbon resources and time-of-day tariffs. GridShare platform also enables utilities to aggregate and manage large fleets of batteries and electric vehicles in order to deliver flexibility services into ancillary markets.

Moixa was recently selected from 13,900 companies as a Global Cleantech 100 company, and has raised over £16m in funding in the last two years including investment from leading companies in Japan. The company has an unrivalled track record in energy storage innovation, gained over 12 years of research and delivery of £6m of grants and pilots, and has over 20 patents on key aggregation, smart storage and electric vehicle optimisation technologies.

ubitricity – Gesellschaft für verteilte Energiesysteme mbH: The objective of Knut Hechtfischer and Dr. Frank Pawlitschek when they founded ubitricity in 2008, was to enable electric vehicles (EV) to recharge using energy from renewable resources wherever they were parked. Today, the company is one of the leading providers of intelligent solutions for EV charging and billing. ubitricity combines technical expertise, such as the development of the mobile electricity meter, with the possibilities of digitalisation. The result is technically simplified and cheaper charging points, allowing a widespread expansion of charging infrastructure using lampposts. In addition, this approach solves the challenge of vehicle-specific billing for fleet management and the real estate industry. The mobile electricity meters also make it possible to turn EVs into intelligent storage for the electricity network – a key component for the development of renewable energy. www.ubitricity.com