By Redação AutoIndústria | Translated by Jorge Meditsch
While in Brazil Honda began to sell the hybrid Civic imported from Thailand only last month, worldwide, it is making a fuss to announce the production of its hydrogen fuel-cell SUV in the United States.
The system will reach the market at the end of next year and is the fruit of a joint development with General Motors, said Shinji Aoyama, Honda’s senior executive director, in an event at the company’s headquarters in Japan this Thursday, 2/2.
The numbers will be timid at the first moment: the intention is to sell initially 2 thousand units yearly and reach 60 thousand per year before the end of the decade when deliveries should be over hundreds of thousands.
According to the company, this will be a new generation of the technology launched in 2016 in the Clarity, but with a double lifespan and much lower costs, one-third of the current version – and half of it until 2030.
The hydrogen-driven SUV, the well-known CR-V, will also enable battery charge at home and will be made in Ohio, with the powertrain from a specific Michigan plant. It will reach almost at the same time North American and Japanese markets until the end of 2024.
The company says it is still studying the offer in European countries in a second phase. It is also considering the use of the technology in commercial vehicles and other segments.
Honda intends to end the production of gasoline engines by 2040, when it will have only battery electric or fuel-cell vehicles. “Hydrogen will play a special role in achieving carbon neutrality”, said Aoyama.
Photography: Honda
