GM and Honda ditch plan to build cheaper electric vehicles

From The Verge: A little more than a year after announcing an ambitious plan to co-develop a lineup of affordable electric vehicles, General Motors and Honda are scrapping the deal — or at least just that one aspect of the deal.

Announced in April 2022, the plan was to build a series of affordable EVs on GM’s flexible EV platform with its Ultium-branded battery packs. At the time, GM and Honda said they expected to begin production of “millions” of these affordable EVs by 2027.

“After studying this for a year, we decided that this would be difficult as a business, so at the moment, we are ending development of an affordable EV,” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said in the interview with Bloomberg, which was the first to report the news.

GM confirmed the development. “Last year, we began working on an affordable EV program for global markets, which was slated for introduction in 2027,” GM spokesperson Sanaz Marbley said in an email. “After extensive studies and analysis, we have come to a mutual decision to discontinue the program. Each company remains committed to affordability in the EV market.”

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