Honda Planning to Double EV Driving Range With Solid-State Battery

International automobile company Honda Motor plans to double the driving range of its electric cars in the next few years. For this the company will use solid-state battery. Current EVs are equipped with liquid-state lithium-ion batteries. Some battery makers are also trying to make solid-state batteries.

“This will be a major change in the EV segment,” said Keiji Otsu, president of Honda’s research and development (R&D) unit. The company is investing approximately $280 million for the trial of this project. Half of this will be given as subsidy by the Japanese government. In this project, the target is to reduce the size of the battery by about 50 percent. Apart from this, efforts will be made to reduce the weight of the battery by about 35 percent and the cost by 25 percent. Honda plans to increase its annual manufacturing of EVs to more than 2 million units by 2030.

In India, the company’s two-wheeler unit Honda Motorcycle and Scooter (HMSI) will soon enter the electric two-wheeler market. HMSI has a major share in the country’s two-wheeler market. The company’s Activa E will be launched next week. The range of this electric scooter can be around 104 kilometers. Activa E will compete with electric scooters from Ola Electric, TVS Motor and Bajaj Auto. According to a media report, there will be two variants of Activa E. Its entry-level variant will have a TFT display and other variants will have a multi-color screen. In the premium variant of this electric scooter, information like battery charging status, remaining range, speed and ride mode will be available on the display. Functions like turn-by-turn navigation and music control can also be found in it.

In the teaser given by the company, its range when fully charged has been indicated to be around 104 kilometers. There may also be a sport mode in which the throttle can be increased but the range will be reduced. The Activa E will use a swingarm-mounted motor. This electric scooter will have LED headlamp. The price of Activa E can be kept affordable. This will make it easier for HMSI to compete with the already existing companies in the electric-two-wheeler market.