Honda Motor Co just announced on Thursday that they have a new goal for the company: mass production of autonomous electric cars.
Honda recently revealed the new mid-term vision 2030 strategy plan. As part of the company’s Honda Vision, their new goal is to have autonomous cars commercially viable and mass produced before 2025. Honda realizes they need to future proof their cars to some extent, so they are pouring more funds into their Research and Development program. The company wants to focus on establishing links between the R&D, procurement, and manufacturing branches of the company to reduce development costs for producing electric vehicles, as well as autonomous vehicle technology.
Furthermore, the company laid out a three-part plan, which includes developing new automotive technologies, creating artificial intelligence and robotic driving services, and investing in new energy model with fewer emissions.
The automotive industry as a whole has slowly been transitioning from traditional cars to electric cars. The next step in the chain is seen by many to be the creation and adoption of autonomous/driverless vehicles. Honda thinks that in should be able to have commercially viable driverless vehicles ready to launch by 2020. Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo, recently went on record as saying that the company is now headed in the right direction, now that they have redefined their priorities.
“We’re going to place utmost priority on electrification and advanced safety technologies going forward,” Hachigo said.
Honda has only recently created a division to develop electric vehicles concordant with their long-term goals for lower emissions. The company’ aims to have their line-up of gas hybrids, plug-in hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell cars and electric vehicles account for 60% of its line-up by 2030. These vehicles make up only 5 percent of the company’s line-up of vehicles right now, so a serious realignment is in the works for Honda.
