Honda: Electric cars DO have a future

Honda boss Takanobu Ito has revealed that Honda now see a future for EV and hybrids, and will show a plug-in hybrid and an EV at the LA Motor Show.

In some ways Honda has been the biggest naysayer of all the car makers when it comes to electric cars. Under the leadership of Takeo Fukui Honda made it clear that they didn’t really see a future for hybrid cars or electric cars. They saw the future as hydrogen fuel cell. But they’ve changed their minds.

Takeo Fukui has made way for Takanobu Ito and that has lead to change of electric car philosophy at Honda. Takanobu Ito has made it clear that he sees a future for pure EVs and for hybrid cars, and to that end Honda will reveal an all electric car at the LA Motor Show as well as a plug-in hybrid.

So why the change of heart, apart from the change of leadership? Actually, it’s not that big a change of heart. Honda are saying that many people only have short journies every day and so an electric car is the ideal solution. With which we concur completely.

And Honda can’t afford not to pander to the idea that hybrids and electrical cars are the future. As long as other car makers are doing the same – and Governments continue to encourage it through taxation – Honda would be daft not to play the game.

Trouble is, most people want a car they can use whatever they choose to do. They may have just ten miles a day to work and back – perfect for an EV – but at the weekends want to take the kids to Alton Towers or visit Aunty Flo in the next county or… For that you’d need two cars, or hire one for the trips away from home every weekend.

We’d be very tempted by a decent electric car to run to the shops, take the dogs to the woods, pop to a local restaurant or for anything where the need is for local transport. But that’s because the system is skewed by taxation.

Are we really naive enough to believe that if we all opted to drive electric cars – which in itself would be impossible as the UK alone would need six nuclear power plants to supply the power required – that Governments wouldn’t tax electricity for cars in exactly the same way they do petrol and diesel?

But for those who never travel far by car or can afford a second car the electric car is a great solution for now at least, with the added benefit of moving pollution away from the point of use to the point of generation.

The definitive NIMBY car, in fact.