(Sharecast News) - Japanese auto giant Honda Motor has announced that it is slashing its investments into electric vehicles by 30%, just a week after it postponed building a new EV battery plant in Canada.
The company said on Tuesday that it would now be spending JPY7trn ($48bn) on its electrification investments, down from the JPY10trn earmarked over for the 10 years ending March 2031.

Honda said it remained committed to the EV market but predicts that hybrid models would play a bigger role during the transition away from traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.

On 13 May, the company said it was delaying plans to establish an EV value chain in Ontario by two years, just two weeks after the plans were first announced.

The investments, which total C$15bn ($10.7bn), included building a cathode active material and precursor (CAM/pCAM) processing plant through a joint venture partnership with POSCO Future M Co, and a separator plant through a joint venture partnership with Asahi Kasei Corporation.

Honda said it was postponing the plans "due to the current slowdown in EV demand".

In its full-year results on 13 May, Honda said was revising its electrification strategy due to the slowdown. The company solid 77,000 fully electric vehicles in the year ended 31 March, up 56% on the year before, though sales fell to 19,000 in the fourth quarter from 30,000 in the third quarter.

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