Honda Motor’s CASE Strategy Until 2030

Honda Motor is accelerating the development of electric, and software / connected areas. The automaker plans to invest 8 trillion JPY in R&D in 10 years until 2030, increasing R&D expenses by about 15% compared to the previous 10 years when it injected 7 trillion JPY in R&D. Of the 8 trillion JPY, 3.5 trillion JPY will be used for in electrification and software.

Honda held a briefing on automobile electrification in April 2022. The automaker plans to release 30 BEV models by 2030. Ten BEV models are planned to be launched until 2027 including the e:NS1 which entered the Chinese market in April 2022.

With the urgent need to advance CASE, Honda is stepping up the recruitment of specialized human resources. The automaker has introduced an early retirement system to promote the generational change of engineers, securing human resources in various areas such electric vehicles, autonomous driving, connected and DX.

Honda Motor: R&D and Human Resources Strategy for CASE Support

Announcement of Investment Plan in April 2022

・Plans to invest 8 trillion JPY in R&D including BEVs in the next 10 years. ・Plans to invest 5 trillion JPY in electrification and software in the next 10 years. - Of this amount, 3.5 trillion JPY will be used for R&D and 1.5 trillion JPY for equipment-related expenses. ・Plans to invest approximately 1 trillion JPY in the next 10 years to prepare for new growth such as new areas and resource environment areas that will be captured in the long term. ・As of April 2022, Honda has reduced the number of global model derivatives to less than half compared to 2018 (setting a goal of reducing it to one-third by 2025). The automaker is also aiming to achieve the 10% reduction target for production costs compared to 2018. Money generated through production cost reduction is planned to be used for R&D. ・Plans to invest 10 billion JPY annually in start-up companies with promising advanced technologies and business models.

Priority Investment Areas

・Plans to accelerate the development of electric area and software / connected area. ・Plans to roll out the 30 BEV models globally by 2030. ・Plans to increase the production capacity of BEVs to 2 million units per year by 2030. ・Plans to accelerate the independent development of next-generation batteries, including all-solid-state batteries. ・Plans to promote the transformation of the business portfolio from a business that mainly sells hardware (automobiles, motorcycles, power products) to the provision of services and value through products that combine hardware and software. ・Plans to work on multi-dimensional solutions such as the deployment of swappable batteries, the popularization of hydrogen fuel cells, the utilization of carbon-neutral fuels such as biofuels, and the promotion of autonomous driving mobility service business in collaboration with GM’s self-driving car company Cruise. ・Plans to promote the development of new areas such as eVTOL, avatar robots, space, smartification and resource recycling.

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