Honda Admits It's Lagging In EV Race

Just last month we wrote about Jaguar Land Rover's announcement that its Jaguar lineup will be all-electric by 2025, making them the latest auto manufacturer to commit to producing only electric vehicles.

Jaguar Land Rover joined the likes of Bentley Motors and General Motors (NYSE:GM) in announcing it will go all-electric as countries set dates to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles.

Automobile giant Honda Motor Co Ltd ADR (NYSE:HMC) said last week that it will introduce two new all-electric SUVs in the U.S. as part of the 2024 model year and that its most popular vehicles will soon be available in gas-electric hybrid versions, according to the Associated Press.

The two new SUVs—one Honda branded and one Acura branded, will see their underpinnings built through a partnership that Honda and General Motors announced last year, establishing a North American automotive alliance to "help both companies accelerate investment in future mobility innovation."

Honda of America sales chief Dave Gardner admitted Honda is not as far along in the transition to electric vehicles as some of its peers. He wouldn't give a firm date as to when Honda hopes to be all-electric, instead telling reporters that the company's aim is to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

Honda has historically dominated the passenger vehicle market but consumers are shifting towards SUVs and trucks, according to Gardner.

"We've got to now focus all of our energies in this direction in order to meet timelines," Gardner said. "We're really good at a couple of things that seem to be going out of vogue today, so there's no doubt that we have work to start moving quickly in the zero-emission direction."

With Honda's competitors much further ahead in the transition to all-electric vehicles, the auto giant admits it needs to get the ball rolling if it wants to remain competitive.