GM announces a significant partnership expansion with Honda for EVs.

Over the years, GM and Honda have worked together many times. Honda has provided engines for top-trim Saturn crossovers, and the partnerships work both ways. Most recently GM and Honda’s collaboration involved development work on fuel cells as well as the Cruise Origin, an electric, self-driving rideshare vehicle. More importantly, Honda also joined GM’s battery module development efforts in 2018. This week, GM and Honda announced that Honda’s next-generation of electric vehicles will be built using GM’s new EV platform and its Ultium batteries.

Like most Honda products, the new Honda EVs will be made in the United States and the components sourced from GM will be made in North America as well. GM released the below timeline to plot out how the rollout will occur.

“This collaboration will put together the strength of both companies, while combined scale and manufacturing efficiencies will ultimately provide greater value to customers,” said Rick Schostek, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. “This expanded partnership will unlock economies of scale to accelerate our electrification roadmap and advance our industry-leading efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We are in discussions with one another regarding the possibility of further extending our partnership,” Schostek added.

Doug Parks, GM executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain commented as well, saying, “This agreement builds on our proven relationship with Honda, and further validates the technical advancements and capabilities of our Ultium batteries and our all-new EV platform. Importantly, it is another step on our journey to an all-electric future and delivering a profitable EV business through increased scale and capacity utilization. We have a terrific history of working closely with Honda, and this new collaboration builds on our relationship and like-minded objectives.”

The sharing of designs goes pretty deep in this new collaboration. Honda will incorporate GM’s OnStar safety and security services into the two EVs,  integrating them with HondaLink. Interestingly, Honda plans to make GM’s hands-free advanced driver-assist technology available. We have tested Honda Sensing many times and rank it as the best in the business. With SuperCruise added, it will be very interesting.