Honda Cancels 0 Series And Acura RSX EVs
- Due to losses and financial hardship, Honda is stopping development on the 0 Series Saloon, 0 Series SUV, and Acura RSX.
- Honda projects that it will lose up to a staggering $15.7 billion dollars after canceling the program and facing a worse outlook in China.
- The 0 Series Alpha will still head to production in some markets, including India.
Honda’s wedge-shaped 0 Series sedan and futuristic 0 Series crossover, and their more conventionally shaped Acura RSX sibling, are officially dead, unfortunately. This morning, Honda Japan announced that it’s reorganizing and restructuring its operations to stave off losses, and the 0 Series is the biggest casualty.
This comes in the face of “record losses” for Honda, namely because of US market tariffs and the way that Honda has lost out on Asian market competitiveness. Other manufacturers, mostly Chinese, are quick with very short development times and model cycles, with software-based features that resonate hard in Asian markets. These brands are meeting a hyper-competitive EV market faster than Honda itself ever could, as the company admits in the release, so it’s giving up for now.
With the slowing of the U.S. market EV space not expanding as quickly as expected, Honda has officially stopped the development of the 0 series sedan and SUV, as well as the Acura RSX, globally, including the U.S. market. This comes after a recent announcement that pushed the at least the Honda 0 Saloon back to 2027. But the other products were set to launch this year, meaning Honda waited until the last minute to pull the plug, which likely explains the high price tag.
Keep in mind that the 0 Series was a ground-up EV model developed by Honda itself. This model shares nothing with the GM-based Prologue or any of its China-based models. This was to be a brand new model, manufactured in Ohio.
With the cancellation of the self-developed models, Honda is taking a huge loss here, writing off the loss of sales, the cancelled development, and other losses from a hard year, Honda says it stands to lose up to 1.2 trillion yen ($15.7 billion dollars) from the overall reshuffle, including a write-down related to its slowing business in China.
Parts of the 0 series project will live on, though. For some markets, like India and parts of Asia, the 0-Series Alpha shown off last year will still reach production and go on sale. As for Honda’s plans, it wants to bolster its hybrid offerings globally, but it’s unclear what it will do for EV offerings aside from the India-bound 0 Series Alpha.
Photo by: Honda
On one hand, this is a stunning amount of money and development to throw away, even if the U.S. EV market (among others) isn’t growing as quickly as the brand predicted. On the other hand, this seems to be one of the worst times to throw in the towel when it comes to EV development; sales globally are still marching upward, while geopolitical tensions are causing the price of oil and gas to rise. People want electric cars, but Honda is bowing out.
If Honda wants to keep up in this new world, it needs EVs now.
Contact the author: kevin.williams@insideevs.com
