Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Honda is killing its EVs

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 919 posts

Re: Honda is killing its EVs

#211

Post by bryanlarsen »

scuff3d wrote: post #195
bryanlarsen wrote: post #123

OTOH, it really looks like Toyota is Goldilocks. Most companies invested too much too early and had to write off a substantial amount, but Toyota is rolling into 2027 with a small but nice selection of EV's. Over 25% of vehicles sold world-wide were electric in 2025, and that percentage is steadily increasing. So VW & Ford were "too hot", Honda is looking like "too cold" and Toyota might be the "just right" of the th…

But it's not really increasing anymore, and the increase has been almost entirely tied to subsidies. When Germany and America pulled back on EV subsidies, sales dropped significantly. The adoption curve hasn't been nearly as steep as predicted, and the political landscape is unstable. Other manufacturers are also pulling back on their EV investments. I'm not saying Honda isn't overdoing it, but a retreat from EVs isn…

> But it's not really increasing anymore

EV's are a half trillion dollar market (20 million cars annually, average selling price $25K) that increased by 20% in 2025.

That's a massive increase in a massive market.

It's not the 50% per annum we were seeing earlier, but 20% of a big number is often more impressive than 50% of a big market.

Re: Honda is killing its EVs

#212

Post by seanmcdirmid »

ikr678 wrote: post #29
ta9000 wrote: post #5

Ironically, Trump attacking Iran and closing the Strait is a boon to China and EV makers. Once the car is produced, aside from lubricants, it’s completely independent of oil. Heck you can put panels on your rooftop and slow charge it during the day.

The suuply chain for repair parts is still supported by oil (freight, packaging, any plastics). Better hope your vehicle is never damaged.

> freight

I know the US primarily uses diesel for its trains, but have you ever been outside of the US before?

Re: Honda is killing its EVs

#214

Post by gcanyon »

EVs are going to be an extinction-level event for carmakers.

As the buggy-makers failed to transition to making cars, and thus ceased to be, so too will automakers fail to transition to EVs, and thus end their viability as vehicle manufacturers.

Re: Honda is killing its EVs

#215

Post by seanmcdirmid »

nytesky wrote: post #31
johanvts wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once EVs are economically attractive the transition can be very fast. I live in Denmark so I have seen it, it took 7 years to go from ~5% to 90+% of new cars sold. Both EU and US are now relying on trade barriers to keep Chinese EVs away from consumers.

How is safety and quality for Chinese EVs? There was the 2008 melamine baby formula scandal, where a toxic substance was deliberately introduced into baby formula for domestic market. Chinese food imports were curtailed across many countries. Capitalism over there is at another level, and cars are so complicated with tiny changes can have huge problems. Look at the immobilizer chips that Kia dropped to save $5, which…

> There was the 2008 melamine baby formula scandal

That was in 2008, which was 18 years ago. Comparing China in 2026 to China in 2008 is like comparing Japan in 1978 to Japan in 1960.

Re: Honda is killing its EVs

#216

Post by warmwaffles »

onraglanroad wrote: post #131
walthamstow wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Norway is a very special case in that it has massive hydro energy resources and nobody lives there.

Norway has roughly the population of the average US state. So I guess no-one really lives in the USA.

The crazier fact is that a hand full of cities alone in the US has a higher population than all of Norway.

Re: Honda is killing its EVs

#217

Post by TremendousJudge »

Slow_Hand wrote: post #206
TrackerFF wrote: post #85

I live in a top EV market, Norway. ICE cars have been planned out for years now, and something like 96% of all new cars in Norway were EV last year. Basically, if you plan on keeping selling ICE cars, you're removing yourself from the market here. There's no future for new personal ICE cars here. I figure most other countries will be the same.

I have a tangential question. Do you find that snow banks near roads are appreciably less black and disgusting now that there are fewer ICE vehicles on the road? Growing up in America I have memories of our roadside snowbanks becoming black and saturated by vehicle exhaust and it always felt so gross to me. The back half of winter was characterized by blackened, salt-saturated puddles and banks. I wonder if the preva…

isn't that at least partially caused by the rubber tire particles?

Re: Honda is killing its EVs

#218

Post by bryanlarsen »

slfnflctd wrote: post #183
bryanlarsen wrote: post #123

OTOH, it really looks like Toyota is Goldilocks. Most companies invested too much too early and had to write off a substantial amount, but Toyota is rolling into 2027 with a small but nice selection of EV's. Over 25% of vehicles sold world-wide were electric in 2025, and that percentage is steadily increasing. So VW & Ford were "too hot", Honda is looking like "too cold" and Toyota might be the "just right" of the th…

Observers and technologists have also consistently failed to appreciate the continuing value proposition of hybrids, and Toyota makes some of the best, top selling models.

My biggest peeve with hybrids is that it gives consumers the mistaken impression that they're going to have to replace the batteries in their EV.

Most hybrids aren't liquid-cooled (although that is changing), and the smaller size means that a hybrid puts a lot more cycles per mile on the battery than an EV does.

Which in practice means that a hybrid battery lasts about 100,000 miles whereas an EV lasts about 250,000 miles.

A Prius is an amazing car; a 300,000 mile Prius is often still in good shape and worth the expense to replace the battery in. Which means you might put 3 batteries in a Prius and then look at how expensive it would be to replace the battery in an EV 3 times and choke. But very few people are going to spend the significant dollars it costs to replace the battery in a 250,000 mile Tesla so in practice that's an expense you'll never have.

Re: Honda is killing its EVs

#219

Post by kimixa »

warmwaffles wrote: post #216
onraglanroad wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Norway has roughly the population of the average US state. So I guess no-one really lives in the USA.

The crazier fact is that a hand full of cities alone in the US has a higher population than all of Norway.

most US states have a lower total population than LA county.

Re: Honda is killing its EVs

#220

Post by BirAdam »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #81
viccis wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Now that the CAFE standards have been rendered toothless Can you elaborate on this? I'd love to have a cheap small truck like they used to make, but CAFE largely killed those.

Cheap small trucks were killed by the chicken tax, not CAFE.

That’s not really sufficient explanation due to vehicles manufactured in the USA, CA or MX being exempt, and yet there are no small vehicles being made and sold in the USA in any large volume (despite clear demand).

My understanding is that this is due to fuel regulations being enacted by size and weight where it’s simply easier to make bigger vehicles.

Post reply on HN