Tokyo, Dec. 7 (BNA): Honda Motor Co. said it will start selling small-sized commercial electric vans in the spring of 2024, as part of its efforts to electrify its vehicles.
Japanese automakers are turning to commercial minivans as one way to make battery electric vehicles (BEVs) popular in the country, capitalizing on the country’s unique vehicle size amid pressure to lower its carbon footprint, Reuters reports.
Honda’s electric truck has a target cruising range of 200 kilometers (125 miles) and is seeking to set the price at around 1 million yen ($7,270).
Gasoline-electric hybrid models are still more popular in Japan and BEVs accounted for just 1% of passenger cars sold in Japan last year.
However, automakers believe small commercial vehicles are key to popularizing electric vehicles in the country, saying that 40% of cars on the road are small “K” cars and that companies are under pressure from investors to reduce carbon emissions.
“We believe that the fastest way to spread the use of electric vehicles in Japan is to first capture the commercial market, especially in the field of light vehicles, which are the mainstay of the Japanese market,” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mebe said in April. .
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. last month relaunched its Minicab-MiEV commercial van, which has a range of 133 kilometers (83 miles) and costs about 2.4 million yen without subsidy.
The commercial vehicle alliance CJPT, led by Toyota Motor Corp., said in July that it would work on developing small electric commercial vans with small vehicle specialists Daihatsu and Suzuki Motor Corp.
Honda in April set goals to produce about two million electric vehicles annually and 30 electric vehicle models globally by 2030.
SM