Honda Motor is shifting gears on its European operations as the Japanese carmaker plans to move away from diesel cars and ramp up on building electric and hybrid vehicles. The planned phase of diesel-fed engines by the company will be completed in 2021, and by 2025 all Honda vehicles will be battery-powered.
Honda's vision, according to Nikkei, is to sell the majority of its cars in electric or hybrid engines by 2030. In Europe, the company is gunning to go full-electric over the next six years.
"The company plans to electrify all models sold in Europe by 2025," the report said.
The move is seen as Honda complying to the tougher emissions regulations passed by the European Union (EU), which call for CO2 to be reduced "to 95 gram per km for 95% of cars from the current 120.5 gram average," per the related report from Reuters.
The EU has mandated that by 2021, all vehicles running in Europe will need to meet the newly-imposed standard, the news agency added on its report.
Honda said that in light of the declining demand for diesel cars in the continent, the company will shut down its manufacturing plant in Britain. The decision will lead to the loss of 3,500 local jobs.
Likewise, the carmaker revealed the planned trimming down of its vehicle model portfolio by more than 30%, which will see full implementation by 2025. Honda said it would realize savings of around 10% in manufacturing costs as a result of the reduction.
The savings will then be rechanneled to research and development, likely leading to the future introduction of environment-friendly car models.
Honda will be joining the ranks of car manufacturers from Japan that have decided to stop the sale of diesel-fed vehicles in Europe. Earlier, Nikkei said Nissan, Toyota, and Suzuki all pulled out car models from the continent that run on diesel.
The successive exits left Mazda as the only remaining Japanese carmaker with diesel car offering in Europe. Of note, the company is said to start selling soon a car model that will be powered by a hybrid engine, fired up by diesel and electricity.
Honda also seeks to increase the presence of Honda-branded electrified vehicles to other markets around the world. New Honda EVs will roll out in India and Southeast Asia soon, which the carmaker said will happen while its diesel car models are gradually phased out from the territories.
The ongoing shift from diesel to electric or hybrid engines by carmakers appeared to be in full swing following the announcements made by Volvo and Volkswagen to halt the development of diesel engine technology. This is true, at least, in countries where the EU regulations are in full effect.
