Honda may not be flooding the market with electric cars, currently, they are sitting on one electric car, the Honda e, a car that is meant primarily for urban use due to low range and not even available worldwide. With that being said, however, it does look like the company is looking to make an impact by stopping the production and sale of their diesel models sooner than anticipated.
According to AutoExpress, Honda has removed their last diesel model, the diesel version of the HR-V in Britain. This now means that Honda’s UK lineup consists of only gasoline, plug-in, and fully electric vehicles.
A Honda spokesperson stated:
“Honda has accelerated its plans for all its European mainstream car models to be electrified from 2025 to 2022 and our motor petrol hybrid technology will play a key role in achieving this goal. As such, we plan for European production of diesel powertrains to cease by the end of 2022. However, on a local level in the UK, we have now stopped selling diesel cars.”
Honda, surprisingly enough, has one of the more aggressive electrification plans when you look at it superficially on paper. The Japanese automaker has moved up the end of their purely gasoline models from 2025 to 2022 in the European market. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Honda will be selling only fully electric cars in two years, as the verbiage of “electrified” means that they can get away with have strictly hybrid models. While the plan isn’t glamourous for many of us wishing to have electric cars take up the market share as quickly as possible, as a short term goal, the elimination of strictly gasoline cars in favor of even mild-hybrids can do some good.
Honda doesn’t exactly have a burgeoning electric fleet, with only the Honda e and a yet unnamed electric crossover coming sometimes in the future. The intentions of the company are unclear as to whether they are going through with these actions due to genuine care and effort, or rather to do just enough to get by without much criticism. It will be interesting to see the model lineup makeup in regards to hybrids to plug-in hybrids and fully electrics in 2022. Still, completely eliminating their diesel models relatively early should be commended.
What do you guys think of the action, let us know what you think down in the comments below.
