Electric with AI

Honda 0 Series: A surprisingly conventional future

Honda presented this concept car at CES 2024 - the series version has been announced for January 2025.

(Bild: Stephan Schätzl)

Honda wants to become CO2-neutral by the middle of the century. The new 0-Series label, under which a completely new generation of electric cars will be launched from 2026, is intended to help achieve this. It will start with a spacious crossover saloon and an SUV.

It is nothing less than a Herculean task. The world's largest manufacturer of combustion engines needs to kick the habit. Honda wants to be completely CO2-neutral by 2050. The new 0-Series electric label, which Honda presented at the CES in Las Vegas at the beginning of the year and is now putting into concrete terms, will be a decisive cornerstone on the way there. The zero not only stands for zero emissions, but also for a completely new start on a blank sheet of paper.

The green wave is late for Honda's shore. Japan's number two must not only get rid of its high fleet consumption, it must also score points with new electric models in the high-volume markets of the USA (especially California) and China and generally halt the downward trend. In Europe, the market share recently fell to a barely relevant 0.4 percent. 

Honda now has the chance of a comeback, but realistically does not see itself as a driver of innovation in the battery world. After the cute, but far too expensive and technically hardly competitive Honda e was already withdrawn from the market in 2023, the 0-Series is now finally set to bring sustainable e-success.  

The concept of a van, presented at the CES 2024

(Bild: Stephan Schätzl)

Mega investments are coming
The Japanese are reportedly investing 60 billion dollars in the ambitious electric vehicle project. 11 billion of this alone will go towards the construction of Honda's first EV factory in Alliston, Ontario, Canada, which will start production in 2028 with an annual capacity of 240,000 electric vehicles. Honda is planning a comprehensive value chain for electromobility here, including a battery factory in a joint venture with LG (annual capacity 36 gigawatt hours per year) and two new component plants.

Honda's first electric vehicles with a zero at the front will roll off the production line at the existing US plant in Marysville/Ohio two years earlier. Seven new electric models for the global market are to be launched by 2030. Five SUVs - from small to very large - one saloon and the crossover saloon announced as the Saloon, which is unlikely to be as futuristic and bold as the spacy illuminated concept car from Las Vegas.

Premiere of the series models in January
The first two near-production models will be unveiled at the upcoming CES in January 2025: a mid-size SUV in the format of the CR-V and the aforementioned van-like saloon, which will offer plenty of space and versatility at just under five meters. This is made possible by a new platform with an extra-thin battery pack which, according to Honda, is flatter in the underbody than in comparable vehicles. The Saloon will have short overhangs and be no higher than 1.40 meters.

The most important thing is the homework
However, we are unlikely to expect anything revolutionary from the 0-Series. Rather, Honda is concentrating on catching up and doing its homework. First of all, this means reducing production costs (by around 35 percent) and lightweight construction. With a pressing process under extremely high pressure of 6000 tons and a new welding technology, larger and thinner body elements can be processed, which should significantly reduce the number of parts, increase stability and save around 100 kilos in weight. Honda talks about transferring not only efficiency but above all driving pleasure into its electric vehicles. 

"Normal" battery with 400 volts 
The battery will initially be a "normal" lithium-ion battery with a capacity of around 80 kWh; the rumored solid-state battery was no longer mentioned. The range is likely to be just under 500 kilometers. Honda's decision to still rely on a 400-volt electrical system for the 0-Series - which will only make its debut in two years' time - is surprising. Competitors such as Hyundai, but also many Chinese competitors, already offer an 800-volt architecture, which, among other things, enables significantly faster charging processes. The Honda Stromer can recharge for 160 kilometers in 15 minutes. This is already only an average value.  

The other e-technology of the Honda project is also rather standard. Two compact, permanently excited electric motors, with 180 kW/245 hp at the front and 50 kW/68 hp at the rear, make the Japanese vehicle an all-wheel-drive vehicle.

AI makes life easier
Like the concept car, the production vehicles could steer according to the drive-by-wire principle, i.e. without a mechanical connection to the wheels. They will definitely have plenty of modern assistants on board. AD/ADAS technology with highly sensitive LiDar-based cameras will then enable Level 3 autonomous driving. Artificial intelligence is not missing either.

Honda is developing its own operating system in which it intends to implement the AI, which it has also developed itself. The adaptive system will then have sensor-controlled face recognition in the B-pillar, for example. If the driver approaches and is recognized, the door opens automatically. If the driver is carrying a heavy load or pushing a baby carriage, the trunk lid opens at the same time. AI and the many cameras installed in the interior should also make it possible at some point for family, friends and partners to take a virtual seat in the passenger seat from home using VR glasses, accompanying and entertaining the driver. If Honda is starting from scratch, then with a certain entertainment value.