Japanese automotive giant, Honda Motor Co. has announced that the company will make organisational and operational changes, to accelerate its electrification business and in a bid to meet its carbon neutrality targets by 2050.

Due to come into effect on April 1, 2023, Honda said in a statement that it will look to achieve this “as it continues working toward the fulfillment of its vision to serve people worldwide with the “joy of expanding their life’s potential” in the areas of mobility and people’s daily lives”.

In addition to further accelerating its electrification business, it will also be looking to create new value by leveraging its broad and expanding range of mobility products and services.

Honda said that its restructuring will involve three strands – the, creation of an “Electrification Business Development Operations”, the “Reorganisation of Regional Operations”, and finally, the Reorganisation of Corporate Functions”.

In detail, the changes will play out as follows:

Creation of Electrification Business Development Operations

Based on the Business Development Operations established April last year to strengthen electrification business, the Electrification Business Development Operations will be newly created. This operation will consolidate the business strategy and BEV product development functions of automobile business and electrification-related strategy and development functions of motorcycle and power products businesses to further strengthen and accelerate Honda’s electrification business.

Reorganisation of Regional Operations

The current six regional operations will be consolidated into three regional operations — North America, China and Associated Regions. Honda said that the new Regional Operations (Associated Regions) will combine four current regional operations, namely Japan, Asia and Oceania, as well as South America and the Europe, Africa and the Middle East Region. With this change, Honda said it will execute electrification strategies and strengthen operations for each region based on its global strategy.

Reorganisation of Corporate Functions

The Corporate Strategy Operations and Corporate Administration Operations will be newly created. The Corporate Strategy Operations will further strengthen Honda’s initiatives in formulating, executing and communicating its corporate strategies toward new value creation, and the Corporate Administration Operations will pursue the total optimisation of corporate resources, which is aligned with corporate strategy.

By further accelerating the series of initiatives Honda says it has been taking to transform itself through electrification and new value creation. The company says it “strives to remain and become even more recognised as “a company society wants to exist” in the electrified era”.

New high-output lithium-ion battery

In related news, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda) and GS Yuasa International Ltd. (GS Yuasa) have announced that they have reached a basic agreement toward collaboration for a high-capacity, high-output lithium-ion battery. The two companies will discuss specifics with the goal of establishing a joint venture company by the end of 2023.

In order to address the rapidly growing demand for batteries, the two companies said they reached this agreement to work toward the joint research and development of lithium-ion batteries and battery production methods that will be highly competitive in the global market, as well as the establishment of a supply chain for key raw materials and a highly-efficient battery production system.

Toshihiro Mibe, director, president and representative executive officer of Honda Motor Co., Ltd, commented: “Honda is striving to realise carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities Honda is involved in by 2050. Honda and GS Yuasa have already been working together on lithium-ion batteries for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and this new collaboration will further accelerate Honda’s electrification strategies toward the achievement of our carbon neutrality goal.”

Osamu Murao, president and representative director of GS Yuasa International Ltd, added: “Based on our corporate philosophy of ‘Innovation and Growth,’ GS Yuasa has been taking on challenges to create energy technologies while amassing a broad range of knowledge and know-how related to batteries. Through this new collaboration with Honda, we will contribute to further diffusion of electric vehicles, offer enhanced comfort and peace of mind to customers worldwide and strive to create new value for the realisation of carbon neutrality.”

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