Honda Motor’s CEO has signalled a shift in emphasis for a next generation of fuel-efficient cars by saying he would consider launching electric cars in the United States, Europe and Japan.
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Honda has been a strong proponent of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles as the most promising zero-emission alternative to today’s combustion engine cars, dismissing plug-in electric cars as a short-range option that uses too many expensive batteries, Reuters noted, but has said recently said that slow progress in setting up hydrogen fuelling stations could limit the sale of its fuel-cell vehicles, and that it may need pure electric cars to meet tough regulations in California.
Takanobu Ito told the news agency that, in addition to the US market, the automaker would consider EVs for other markets including Europe and Japan.
Ito told an industry seminar that he still believed that hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles would in the end be the key car technology but that electric cars would be a core offering for it in the future.
