Honda is ready to start building its first prototype solid-state batteries, the company announced late Wednesday. A new provisional assembly line erected at one of its Japanese R&D facilities will be ready to come online in January, at which point Honda will start fleshing out the eventual process by which it will mass-produce the new packs.
With this announcement, Honda is officially working two steps ahead of its current Prologue EV, which is based on GM’s Ultium battery platform. Honda announced that its deal with GM would be a one-and-done, with the company focusing on developing its own internal electrification processes. We’ll see the first fruits of that labor in the Honda 0 Series, which is set to debut in the U.S. in 2026. This solid-state battery tech should underpin the 0 Series’ eventual successor, which gives Honda considerable time to perfect both its battery chemistry and production process.
Solid-state battery packs offer improved energy density largely because they’re far easier to keep cool than existing lithium-ion packs, which still rely on liquid or gel-based electrolytes. Solid-state batteries, as implied by their name, rely on non-liquid electrolytes (think ceramics or polymers rather than metals). This alone makes them inherently safer, too.
So, if better energy density means smaller battery packs and better thermal management means they can be charged quicker, what’s the catch? In a word: cost. Solid-state batteries simply cost far more to manufacture than conventional Li-Ion units, and that brings us back to Honda’s prototype facility. The key to bringing costs down is iterating the manufacturing process.
“Honda has abundant manufacturing expertise and a proven track record of achieving mass production of new technologies, such as solar cells and fuel cells,” the company said in its announcement.
Honda says it wants to begin mass production of solid-state batteries before the end of the decade—just in time for them to be utilized in the company’s third-generation EVs. Until then, Honda will continue seeking opportunities to spread the costs of solid-state production to other parts of its business, including motorcycles and aircraft.
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