The International Electric Vehicle Technology Conference (EVTeC) is an international conference focusing on EV technology, which started in 2011 by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan (JSAE). In May 2023, the 6th EVTeC was held in Yokohama, and Keiji Otsu, President and Representative Director of Honda R&D Co., Ltd. delivered a speech titled “Honda's Vision for Carbon Neutrality in 2050.”

What is Honda's vision for the realization of carbon neutrality? Here is the brief summary of the speech session by Otsu, which covered a broad range of subjects including electrification, hydrogen utilization and energy circulation.

Otsu began his speech by stating that “Honda has been committed to helping people through its products and technologies since its founding,” mentioning challenges Honda has taken in the areas of F1 racing and automated driving. He then said, “The willingness to take on challenges in order to help people is in Honda DNA. Our purpose is to help people, and technology is the means to achieve that purpose.”

As a company that helps people and society, Honda has continued to grow in a broad range of businesses, but now, not only the automobile industry, the entire society is in the midst of a major change which requires commitment to address environmental issues.

Otsu explained Honda’s 2050 environmental target, then went on to reiterate that Honda is taking initiative in three interrelated focus areas, namely “carbon neutrality,” “clean energy” and “resource circulation” to achieve the 2050 target.

First, Otsu explained “carbon neutrality” and “clean energy.”

In his speech, Otsu introduced one of the initiatives Honda has been taking toward this direction: expansion of the use of Honda Mobile Power Packs (MPPs). When the use of swappable battery packs becomes widespread, there will be a structure that enables people to carry around electricity derived from renewable energy sources for their mobility products and daily lives, just like a “bucket brigade” for electricity.

However, this alone is not enough to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In his speech, Otsu also introduced Honda initiatives related to “hydrogen energy,” which Honda positions as one of the key energy carriers along with electricity.

Otsu then introduced the next-generation fuel cell system that will be installed in Honda's next-generation FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicle).

With this next-generation fuel cell system, the cost was reduced to one-third and the durability was more than doubled compared to the previous version, and low temperature resistance was also increased.

Based on this belief, Honda is making progress in applying FC stacks to commercial trucks and conducting demonstration testing in various locations inside and outside Japan.

Toward the end of his speech session, Otsu posed one question.

Otsu put one slide on the screen: the Japanese government's Sixth Strategic Energy Plan approved by the Cabinet in October 2021.

In order to strive for the realization of a circular/resource-recycling society which aims for zero environmental impact not only for the products but for the entire product lifecycle, Honda must not only eliminate CO2 emissions from its cars and motorcycles, but also from factories and offices.

As one of the initiatives Honda is taking to this end, Otsu introduced the Direct Air Capture (DAC) system, a technology to separate and capture CO2 from the atmosphere using a container unit which contains CO2 adsorbent. The recovered CO2 will be mixed with hydrogen using a catalyst to transform it into a fuel.

Another initiative Otsu introduced in this speech was “resource circulation,” which is one of the focus areas of the Triple Action to ZERO.

Currently, a large amount of CO2 emissions are coming from the use of fossil fuels. However, as the number of electrified products and the amount of electricity derived from renewable energy sources increase in the future, the proportion of CO2 emissions from activities related to the procurement of raw materials will increase. When this happens, recycling of raw materials and effective utilization of resources will become important to reduce CO2 emissions throughout the lifecycle of the products. This is the concept of Honda’s “resource circulation.”

In his speech session, Otsu also introduced some initiatives Honda is currently taking in new areas such as space technology and eVTOL. The realization of carbon neutrality is not the only dream Honda has. Honda is dreaming of enabling people to transcend the constraints of time and place and play active roles in society.