Cheap Juice: Honda and GM Pair Up to Keep Their EV Costs Down

Some automakers have been working for more than 100 years to perfect the internal combustion engine, but the same cannot be said for those newfangled electric doohickeys that are all the rage on the road these days.

Big Auto players are now teaming up in hopes of keeping EV prices down. On Tuesday, General Motors and Honda announced they’ll be joining forces to produce a product Tesla seems to have given up on: the cheap, compact electric car.

Go Small or Go Home

Right now, Elon Musk’s EV behemoth is squarely focused on producing cars many potential buyers cannot afford. Its cheapest, the Model 3 — once touted as an electric car for the masses — sells for close to $50,000, and the company temporarily shelved plans for a $25,000 entry-level vehicle earlier this year.

Musk taking his eyes off that road has created an opening for GM and Honda, which promise to flood the market with millions of new EVs priced at around $30,000 by 2027:

• GM says it will share with Honda its “Ultium” battery and electric motor technology — which powers its soon-to-be-released $30,000 Chevy Equinox EV — anticipating that a global collaboration will reduce the costs of producing the expensive power plants.
• The new vehicles will feature other cost-saving standardized equipment, allowing the two companies to open the doors of electric vehicles to a mass-market still untapped by other companies.

Tag-Team Action: GM and Honda aren’t the only carmakers looking to combine resources in hopes of hitting the gas on creating a petrol-free lineup. BMW and Land Rover, Subaru and Toyota, and Volkswagen and Ford have also announced plans to collaborate on building new EVs.

It Takes Two: Honda is also looking beyond GM to help it in the EV market. Last month it announced plans to partner with technology company/Hollywood studio Sony to create a new electric car company aiming to have vehicles on the road by 2025. We anxiously await the coming attractions.