At CES 2024 (and, again, at CES 2025), Honda showcased some of the coolest-looking electric vehicle concepts we’ve ever seen.
With a sleek retro aesthetic, the Honda 0 Series Saloon and 0 Series SUV seemed to be the company’s ticket to make serious waves in the EV space, at a time when many other manufacturers were scaling down their EV plans.
The idea was to bring these cars to market in 2026, but that’s not going to happen. On Thursday, Honda announced it would cancel the development and market launch of both the Honda 0 Series models, as well as the electric Acura RSX, writing off roughly $15.7 billion in restructuring costs.
“Honda determined that starting production and sales of these three models in current business environment where the demand for EVs is declining significantly would likely result in further losses over the long term,” the company said in a statement.
The company lays down the blame for the move on Trump’s tariffs, as well as its own inability to properly balance resources needed to develop EVs and remain competitive in Asia.
One paragraph from the statement is particularly notable as it clearly explains why Honda (but also many other, older manufacturers) cannot compete with the new wave of EVs from China.
“In China, what customers value more in automobiles is shifting from hardware features, such as fuel efficiency and cabin space, to software-based features that will continuously advance according to customer preferences. This has intensified the competition due to the rapid emergence of newer EV manufacturers that leverage their short product development cycles and strengths in the area of software-defined vehicle (SDV) technologies, including advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). In such a difficult competitive environment, Honda was unable to deliver products that offer value for money better than that of newer EV manufacturers.”
European manufacturers, take note: This isn’t only happening in China, and it goes for many of you, too.
While this isn’t mentioned in the post, this likely means that the associated projects, such as this cool solar-powered camper, probably aren’t happening either.
Honda will instead focus on hybrids for the time being. As for EVs, Honda will monitor “the balance between profitability and market trends” before it decides to introduce new EV models.
