EV Laggards Italy & Honda Talk Smack About EV Transition Targets

When there’s just the slightest dip in electric vehicle growth, we get to see the spiders come out of the baseboards. We’re not even talking about EV sales decline. We’re just talking slower EV sales growth. Nonetheless, a handful of legacy automakers have taken the opportunity to pooh-pooh the transition to EVs and even cut back on their EV transition plans. Two popped up in recent weeks who I have to admit do not surprise me at all.

Italy Wants to Pump the Brakes on EVs

This first one makes me think of a vivid experience I once had at a cleantech conference. It was an event in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and I was seated at a fancy table next to someone from Italy. The primary focus at the broader event was renewable energy, but electric vehicles were already rising as serious transportation options. Somehow, we got onto the topic of EVs, and he was very skeptical EVs could ever become popular. I was dumbfounded and taken aback by his position and some of the arguments he was making. He talked alt fuels and had a clearly limited take on charging, driving range, and EV battery development. That conversation has stuck with me when thinking about Italy’s slow-walk into an EV future over the past several years. It also reminded me of Sergio Marchionne, the former CEO of Fiat and FCA who was adamantly opposed to electric vehicles. There is something in the auto culture, and perhaps broader culture, in Italy that is very strongly anti-EV.

So, the news: Italian Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin told Automotive News Europe this month that the 2035 ban on gasoline engines in the EU is “absurd” and “must be changed.” There is apparently strong lobbying from Italy going on on this matter.

Notably, EV adoption started rising in Italy like in other countries in Europe, but then it pulled back the policies supporting that and had things go in the opposite direction. It’s also noteworthy that the country is currently led by a right-wing government. For some reason, right-wing governments across the West are typically opposed to strong climate action and have an affiliation with fossil fuels.

Honda Doesn’t Want to Force People to Buy EVs It Won’t Make

Honda has been in contention for the “Biggest EV Laggard Award” for years. It has taken slow-walking to an all new level, like the sloth in Zootopia. And it apparently has no shame in that regard. In fact, the company may still be doing its best to win that award.

President and CEO of American Honda Kazuhiro Takizawa told The Drive last month that “You can’t force the customer to change their mind [and] we just can’t force the people living in, say, the Midwest, with no charging stations.” First of all, there are charging stations in the Midwest, a lot of them. Secondly, Honda isn’t anywhere close to forcing anyone. The company wouldn’t build a real electric car for years upon years, even as EVs rose to a major portion of auto sales. Honda finally has a decent EV for sale, but it was basically built by GM and has a Honda shell on top. In other words, Honda still isn’t really trying. Or, to be more business-y about it, Honda’s IP and auto development is tied up in non-electric automobiles and the company is far behind other automakers in trying to develop EVs. So, yes, naturally, they don’t want the EV transition to speed up, or to happen at all.

Maybe Honda will come around in a couple of years when it has its own homegrown EVs selling and finally has a horse in the race. At the event where these comments were made, the 2024 Monterey Car Week, “Acura revealed a Performance EV concept that previews one of the first EVs to come from the luxury automaker on the in-house developed Honda 0 platform. The production version will roll off the assembly line at the automaker’s Marysville Auto Plant in Ohio in 2025,” Green Car Reports writes. Also, “Honda’s currently underway with a $700 million retooling effort at three of its plants along with a $3.5 billion battery plant all for U.S. EV mass production. The moves could position Honda to outpace all but Tesla in U.S. EV production.”

Laggards will be laggards. However, when a transition is inevitable, laggards either have to join the crowd eventually or go bankrupt and join the dustbin of history.