[HN Gopher] Honda to spend $11B on four EV factories in North Am...
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       Honda to spend $11B on four EV factories in North America
        
       Author : rntn
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2024-04-25 16:41 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | talldatethrow wrote:
       | I always wonder how the Toyota and Honda of the world will do in
       | the EV switch, when their main claim to fame was transmissions
       | and engines that outlast the overall usefulness of the car.
       | 
       | With evs it seems those concerns are mostly gone, and now battery
       | risk remains, which they currently have no advantage with.
        
         | spywaregorilla wrote:
         | From the look of the honda prologue, it's by building EVs that
         | appear simple and plain. Which I think is probably a pretty
         | good strategy.
        
           | decafninja wrote:
           | Isn't the Prologue basically a Chevy?
        
         | chrisallenlane wrote:
         | I think Honda's brand is a genuine advantage. They know how to
         | make good cars, and people trust them as a result.
         | 
         | I'm in my 40s, but still only on my second car, which is an old
         | Honda Civic. I plan to drive it until I can purchase a second-
         | or third-gen EV Civic. (Surely Honda eventually plans to make
         | an EV Civic?)
        
         | dlachausse wrote:
         | I still think their early investment in hybrids was a great
         | strategy.
         | 
         | If you look at the graph to the right on the link below,
         | hybrids are still edging out battery EVs, although the trend
         | lines are definitely in favor of battery EVs long term.
         | 
         | https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61344
        
         | thorncorona wrote:
         | Guessing hybrids / plug ins will be popular for a long time,
         | just because they are a known quantity.
         | 
         | Kia and Hyundai still haven't reached the rock solid
         | reliability of Japanese autos, despite having been around for
         | much longer than Tesla.
         | 
         | Traditional manufacturers will likely have an easier time
         | transitioning to EVs than EV manufacturers will, building
         | reliable cars.
        
         | LeFantome wrote:
         | Quality still matters. Ask anybody with a Tesla.
         | 
         | I think Honda will be fine. Toyota has lots of time as well I
         | think as car buyers have a certain amount of brand loyalty.
         | 
         | If it were not for brand loyalty and emotional bias, BYD would
         | probably be storming the world with their inexpensive EV
         | options.
         | 
         | Tesla is in the biggest trouble I think. They have been a
         | luxury brand despite a total lack of luxury. Once everybody
         | catches up on EV range, what do they have? The charging network
         | is the biggest advantage. Perhaps they should pivot to
         | dominating that. Probably harder to avoid regulatory break-up
         | on that front though I suppose.
         | 
         | There is not much battery risk these days though and less all
         | the time. At some point, the problem for car makers is going to
         | be that the batteries last too long.
         | 
         | With mechanical parts, nobody faults you if things start to
         | fail after a decade or two. What will the car market look like
         | when cars start maintaining peak performance for decades?
        
       | pie420 wrote:
       | I am announcing today that I am spending $32 billion on 7 EV
       | Factories.
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-25 23:01 UTC)