Honda cancels another major EV investment – report

Honda has reportedly frozen plans for an electric vehicle (EV) factory which was set to build 240,000 EVs annually as part of the Japanese brand’s push into electrification.

According to Nikkei Asia, the planned factory in the Canadian province of Ontario – already delayed by two years beyond its original 2028 opening target – has now been postponed indefinitely and could be cancelled outright.

Honda has yet to make an official announcement confirming the decision.

The project was announced in April 2024 to great fanfare, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attending as Honda planned to invest C$15 billion (A$15.3 billion) into the facility in addition to support from the Canadian government.

In addition to the vehicle plant, this multi-billion-dollar investment was set to include a battery plant with a capacity of 36GWh per year.

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Honda will instead build EVs at its plants in the US state of Ohio, where it invested around US$1 billion (A$1.4 billion) to enable production of EVs, hybrids and internal combustion-engined vehicles on the same production line.

In mid-2025, Honda announced it would slash its previously announced ¥10 trillion (A$103 billion) investment in EVs and related technologies through 2030 by 30 per cent to ¥7 trillion (A$74 billion).

The news follows the cancellation of two of the three upcoming Honda 0 Series electric vehicles, with a futuristic sedan and SUV previously earmarked for the US – and potentially Australia – axed. Honda also pulled the plug on the upcoming electric Acura RSX.

Plans remain for a single Indian-made 0 Alpha small electric SUV, which Honda Australia told CarExpert remains under consideration for the local lineup when production starts in 2027.

Honda Australia, which had previously said it was considering all three 0 Series models for Australia, will launch its first EV locally – the city-sized Super-One – in the second half of 2026.

The local lineup will also gain expanded hybrid offerings for the CR-V SUV range as well as the arrival of the Prelude sports car mid-year, but with the demise of most of the 0 Series there are now few additional EVs in Honda’s global portfolio.

Honda EVs currently on sale overseas include the Honda Prologue electric SUV, a rival to the Toyota bZ4X (badged ‘bZ’ in the US), Tesla Model Y and Ford Mustang Mach-E, which is currently sold in the US but is reportedly set to be axed later this year.

Nikkei Asia reported that slow sales of the Prologue had forced Honda to offer dealers substantial financial incentives. The Japanese automaker had already discontinued its slow-selling luxury sibling, the Acura ZDX.

The Prologue's departure will leave Honda without a dedicated EV in US showrooms for the time being.

Hyundai currently offers three EVs in the US, while Toyota has two and Nissan sells the Leaf as its only electric model – with many brands instead focusing on the growing popularity of hybrids.

This includes domestic US automakers such as Ford, which revised its EV plans after billions of dollars in losses, with CEO Jim Farley announcing a stronger push towards hybrid models including extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs).

Ford also cancelled plans to build EVs in Ontario, abandoning a planned three-row electric SUV – described by former EV chief Doug Field as a “personal bullet train” – in favour of producing V8 petrol and diesel engines for F-Series Super Duty models instead.

Like Ford and a number of other automakers, Honda has struggled to sell EVs both in China and in its largest market, the US.

The Japanese brand sold 1.43 million vehicles in the US in 2025, more than double the number sold in China and more than twice the volume it sold in Japan.

This came despite multiple changes to US import tariffs affecting all automakers, though Honda was able to leverage its existing US manufacturing footprint to offset some of the disruption.

Strong US sales helped offset a massive 60 per cent decline in China, with Honda’s global sales down a relatively modest eight per cent in 2025 to 3.52 million vehicles.

In Australia, Honda was one of the few Japanese brands to post growth in 2025, recording a 9.2 per cent year-on-year increase led by the CR-V SUV.

Mazda and Nissan both posted declines locally, while Toyota slipped 0.6 per cent following its record result in 2024.

During the first four months of 2026, Honda Australia posted a 1.0 per cent decline against a 3.8 per cent increase for the overall new-car market, which included a record 16.4 per cent EV market share following record fuel prices across Australia in April.

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