Honda takes a $1.7 billion hit for EV business after not even trying that hard – Jalopnik

On the grand scale of the automotive universe, Honda is at the extremely low end of the electric vehicle push. Across both the Honda and Acura brands, there have only been two electric vehicles in the US: the Prologue and the ZDX, and the ZDX is now dead. Keep in mind that both cars are just Chevy Blazer EVs wearing different clothes. Of course, there are some other small electric vehicles in Europe and Asia, but they aren’t exactly big sellers either. Yet Honda somehow hasn’t adequately hedged its EV bets, so it’s calling for a “fundamental overhaul” of its auto strategy after suffering some pretty serious losses in the EV space.

Honda’s depreciation and expenses for its EV business amounted to ¥267.1 billion (about $1.72 billion) in the last nine months of 2025, the company said recently. Global sales of electric vehicles fell to 15,000 vehicles last quarter. At the same time, Toyota, once the golden boy of EV skepticism, saw its EV sales double to 63,000 units over the same period. By Automotive news:

Honda’s depreciation and impairment charges on electric cars sold in the U.S., along with writedowns that eliminate electric car development originally included in its product plans, left the company’s automotive business with an operating loss of ¥166.4 billion ($1.07 billion) for the first three quarters of the fiscal year.

The automotive division of Honda Motor Co. has now suffered operating losses for four quarters in a row. The company expects its EV business to lose about 700 billion yen ($4.48 billion) in the full fiscal year.

“We must conduct a fundamental review of our strategies to rebuild our competitiveness,” Executive Vice President Noriya Kaihara said on February 10, announcing a 61 percent decline in consolidated operating profit for the fiscal third quarter from October to December.

Additional EV costs of ¥43.4 billion ($277.9 million) in the three months, on top of the ¥223.7 billion ($1.43 billion) already booked in the six months through September. For the full fiscal year through March 31, Honda warns of total EV-related writedowns of ¥290 billion ($1.86 billion).

The EV hit is almost as bad as the impact of the US tariffs. Honda expects to cut excise taxes by about ¥310 billion ($1.98 billion) this fiscal year, with operating profit expected to fall 55 percent.

The spending isn’t nearly over yet either. Honda apparently expects additional EV costs following the outcome of negotiations with GM regarding the reduction of their EV team. Honda has reduced its purchasing from GM and must therefore compensate the company for the difference. Between October and December, Prologue sales fell 86% to just 2,641 units, and in September it was announced that the ZDX would die.

In 2024, Honda said it would sell as many as 2 million EVs worldwide by 2030, but now that number is expected to be somewhere between 700,000 and 750,000. I hope they can even reach that number, because some of the EVs they have in the pipeline, like the 0 Series and the new Acura RSX, look promising. Perhaps Honda would have been better served if it had developed its own electric vehicles for the US from the start, rather than responding to GM, but I guess we’ll never know.