Honda sets goal of all electric vehicle sales by 2040

Honda Motor Co. is looking to extend its commitments to cleaner energy by increasing its inventory of electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles to 100 percent of all sales by 2040. 

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe, who took on the lead role at Japan’s second-largest car manufacturer earlier this month, made the announcement at a Friday news conference. 

“I believe it is the responsibility of an automaker to achieve our carbon-free goal on a ‘tank-to-wheel’ basis,” Mibe said, according to Reuters. 

The CEO said Honda will work toward a goal of electric and fuel cell vehicles accounting for 40 percent of its total sales by 2030, and 80 percent by 2035 in the auto manufacturer’s major markets. 

Mibe added that over the next six years, Honda plans to invest roughly $46.3 billion in research and development initiatives, including vehicle electrification. 

Honda’s announcement came a day after Japan, at the White House’s virtual climate summit, announced a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 46 percent of 2013 levels by 2030. 

Reuters reported that Mibe said Honda is in “full support of this target,” adding, “We’d like to put all our efforts towards achieving the goal.” 

“While the government’s target is extremely difficult, I believe it is a feasible target from the viewpoint of Japan becoming carbon neutral in 2050,” he said. 

The commitments from Honda come as groups within the U.S. have also advocated for promoting a complete shift to zero-emission vehicles. 

In a Wednesday letter to President Biden, 12 governors, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo (D) and California’s Gavin Newsom (D), called on the president to push the country to end the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035 as part of his proposed $2 trillion infrastructure package. 

Meanwhile, several GOP senators have pushed back on provisions in the bill aimed at shifting the country away from fossil fuels, including existing funding in the infrastructure bill for electric vehicles, arguing that this could make the U.S. less competitive in the global economy.