Honda To Use GM’s Ultium Battery, Super Cruise Hands-Free Driving System In New Electric Car Models

General Motors
GM
shared the first details of its third-generation electric vehicle architecture and Ultium battery system just about a month ago, but it won’t be the only automaker using this new EV hardware. Honda is now planning to build two new electric models based on the GM tech.

Sharing of EV technology across multiple automakers is becoming an increasingly common practise. Last summer, Ford reached an agreement to build at least one European market BEV based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform and more recently, the Dearborn automaker announced than an electric Lincoln SUV would be based on Rivian’s skateboard architecture. Hyundai also announced plans to use the electric platform from California-based startup Canoo.

This hardware sharing makes sense for automakers since the technology is expensive to develop but once it’s built into a vehicle, there’s less to differentiate one vehicle from another as it was in the days of internal combustion engines. Sharing allows the development cost to be spread over more vehicles, generating economies of scale. This is crucially important for a segment of the market that still commands less than 2% share.

While Honda has an excellent reputation for designing traditional engines, having even supplied some to GM in the past for use in the Saturn Vue, it has struggled with BEVs. The Japanese automaker has focused more on fuel cell technology which has seen very limited adoption to date. The only BEV that Honda currently offers in the U.S. market is the Clarity EV which offers just 89 miles of range on a charge. While Honda’s own BEV efforts to date have been lackluster, they have been working with GM on battery module design since 2018 and likely had a hand in the development of Ultium.

The so-called “top-hats” which comprise the body and interior of the vehicle will be designed and developed by Honda with the propulsion system and battery coming from GM. The first of the new Honda BEVs are scheduled to go on sale in 2024 and be produced at GM factories. Honda is also adopting two other major bits of technology from GM for its BEVs.

The OnStar telematics will be integrated alongside Honda’s own HondaLink connectivity reviving an old relationship. Back in the late-1990s Honda licensed the first-generation OnStar to use on some Acura vehicles.

Perhaps more interesting is that these will be the first non-GM vehicles to utilize Super Cruise, the hands-free, partially automated driving system that debuted on the Cadillac CT6 in 2017. GM is finally expanding availability of Super Cruise this year with more than 20 models slated to offer the technology over the next two years.

Honda and GM are already working together on another BEV, the Cruise Origin robotaxi. The Origin is being developed as a purpose-built automated vehicle to be operated by Cruise, the San Francisco company developing the automated driving system that powers it. The Origin also rides on this same electric architecture.