What Honda’s Partnership With GM Means For Its EV And Hydrogen Future

Summary

• Honda and GM’s partnership has resulted in two vehicles, the Prologue EV and the Acura ZDX, both sharing a platform with the Ultium-based Chevrolet Blazer.
• The companies have formed Fuel Cell Systems Manufacturing LLC to manufacture hydrogen fuel cells, with a factory already in operation outside of Detroit.
• Honda and GM are focusing on manufacturing fuel cells rather than designing hydrogen cars, with the goal of using fuel cells for emergency power and portable generators.

From the time they announced a partnership, Honda and General Motors seemed like strange bedfellows. Automotive collaborations between American and Japanese companies are nothing new, but Honda and GM serve widely different demographics. Ford and Mazda could at least bond over sports cars, Mitsubishi and Chrysler share a love of superfluous horsepower, but it’s hard to see much common ground between the biggest manufacturer of all-American galumphers and a company that specializes in reliable cars with more fun under the hood than anyone technically needs. However, the changing automotive industry can have strange effects.

Of course, the auto industry has always been changing (what industry isn’t?), but the fuel of choice has been consistent ever since steam-powered cars went away around the beginning of the Jazz Age. But things are getting strange in the automotive industry as the end of gasoline slowly draws nearer. General Motors and Honda aren’t planning a merger, but their EV ventures have been strikingly collaborative yet punctuated by canceled projects.

In order to give you the most up-to-date and accurate information possible, the data used to compile this article was sourced from various manufacturer websites and other authoritative sources, including MotorTrend, Edmunds, and Hagerty.

What Honda Is Getting Out Of Its Partnership With GM

• Honda is using GM’s platform for the Prologue EV and the Acura ZDX.
• Honda and GM were going to joint-develop a line of low-cost EVs on GM’s Ultium platform, but that was canceled.
• Honda and GM are joint-manufacturing hydrogen fuel cells. Honda is using them for the emergency power generator at its data center.

Honda has gotten two vehicles out of its joint venture with GM. The Prologue EV and the Acura ZDX both share a platform with the Ultium-based Chevrolet Blazer. These are the only two concrete vehicle plans from this partnership that are still going forward. However, the two automotive companies have other, non-vehicular projects.

Fuel Cell Systems Manufacturing, LLC, Is Honda And GM’s Fuel Cell Factory

If hydrogen is a fool’s pursuit, then Honda and General Motors are chasing it anyway. The two companies have formed a partnership called Fuel Cell Systems Manufacturing LLC (or FCSM for short). It is exactly what the name states: a company that manufactures hydrogen fuel cells. The companies already have a factory outside of Detroit.

So far, it only produces one type of fuel cell module capable of generating 77 kilowatts (about 103 horsepower). Although this is a paltry power rating by automotive standards, fuel cells are easier than engines to link together since there is no need to synchronize crankshafts.

The Canceled Ultium Collaboration

General Motors and Honda had initially planned to make affordable EVs based on GM’s Ultium platform. The EV lineup would have been quite varied since the Ultium platform is modular and flexible enough to accommodate anything from small cars to SUVs.

However, this has been canceled. Neither company has been forthcoming about why the collaboration was scrubbed. Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe, in a masterful example of a diplomatic non-statement, said that the two companies had “decided that this would be difficult as a business.”

Honda And GM Are Focusing On Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Not Hydrogen Cars

• Honda and GM’s partnership focuses near-exclusively on manufacturing hydrogen fuel cells.
• The two companies have also jointly developed a hydrogen variant of the Honda CR-V.

Honda and General Motors’ partnership has resulted in very few vehicles. The two companies are focusing on manufacturing fuel cells instead of designing cars to put them in. It’s the modern-day equivalent of two car companies joint-developing crate engines. While the two companies have few other collaborations in the works, their main focus is the fuel cell factory.

Honda Is Already Using Its Own Hydrogen Fuel Cells For Emergency Power

Honda proved its belief in hydrogen when it replaced diesel with fuel cells for its data center’s backup generator. Mobile power generators figure prominently in the company’s plan for hydrogen. The company is planning to offer the fuel cells it has developed with GM as portable (or at least, truckable) generators.

Hydrogen fuel cells have two big advantages over emergency diesel engines: the cells don’t need nearly as much maintenance, and hydrogen gas never expires. While there are plenty of YouTube videos (some of which might not be faked) of people wandering into the woods and starting diesel engines that have purportedly been abandoned for years (often with allegedly ancient fuel still in the tank), a diesel engine is more likely to start on demand if it is regularly serviced.

Of course, this is not to say that fuel cells are maintenance-free. However, they do not need nearly as much loving care and lubrication as diesel engines. This makes them a good fit for power generation, whether it’s for emergencies or just temporary use.

Honda And GM Have Joint-Developed A Hydrogen CR-V

Although Honda’s foremost product is cars, its hydrogen partnership with GM has only produced one vehicle: a fuel-cell powered variant of the CR-V. Aside from the fuel cells and hydrogen tanks, the vehicle is identical to other, non-hydrogen CR-Vs. No doubt this is a deliberate choice on Honda’s part: instead of selling customers on an unfamiliar model with a newfangled fuel, salespeople can assure car buyers that the hydrogen CR-V is “just like a normal car.”

Of course, given that there are so few places to refuel a hydrogen car, it makes sense neither Honda nor GM would develop a full lineup of them. Instead, the two companies have chosen to put fuel cells into the most middle-of-the-road vehicle possible. With so few customers available to sell a hydrogen car to, it seems obvious why Honda would try to appeal to as many of them as possible.

Despite Honda’s obvious attempt at mass-market appeal, hydrogen may be one of the few cases where enthusiasts are a more profitable demographic than everyone else. Even in the few areas where hydrogen is available, FCEVs remain a tough sell. Anyone who “just wants to get from A to B” is unlikely to choose a car with such limited refueling options. (Asking “But what if I want to drive out of town?” can kill a sale.) Perhaps Honda should go ahead and make an overpowered sports coupe instead. Refueling is never a problem when the car is always ferried on a trailer.

Fuel Cells May Replace Engines For Many Non-Automotive Uses, And Honda Will Be Ready For It

Based on current activities, Honda is not planning to get a lot of hydrogen cars out of its partnership with GM (fuel-cell CR-V notwithstanding). Instead, it is using fuel cells as its entry point into the post-gasoline market for portable power.

At present, Honda’s non-vehicular engines are a huge portion of the company’s output. While practically every automaker sells crate engines for non-car use, Honda is particularly successful at it. Honda engines can be found in everything from suburban lawnmowers to mobile generators. This established reputation gives Honda an edge when it comes to selling hydrogen fuel cells as mobile, modular power sources. People are already used to seeing the Honda logo on everything from pressure washers to tractors. Of course, this can’t eliminate customer skepticism over fuel cells. However, Honda’s long history with engines means that customers are more likely to trust fuel cells if they have that familiar “boxed H” logo on them.

Honda Engines Are Omnipresent

It shouldn’t be surprising that Honda and GM are focusing on hydrogen fuel cells rather than designing vehicles to put them in. Right now, cars are simply not the most lucrative use of hydrogen. There are better places to deploy fuel cells until the fueling infrastructure catches up. As aforementioned, Honda is already using its own data center to endorse hydrogen for emergency backup generators.

Aside from generators, fuel cells show a lot of promise in many places where one finds Honda engines (and that’s a lot of places). Honda and GM’s joint-operated fuel cell factory positions the company to seize the market just as it begins to exist.

Why Fuel Cells Are Sometimes Better Than Batteries

While many people may consider hydrogen superfluous since batteries already exist, hydrogen has several advantages. Most obviously, it does not depend on a robust power grid. Hydrogen tanks can be trucked into places that lack reliable electricity, even in the midst of prolonged power outages. This makes hydrogen suitable for construction sites where a building may not yet be ready to get connected to the power grid, and also for places like Texas where electricity is never a guarantee.

Additionally, hydrogen can be dispensed when the power goes out. Of course, an electricity generator would be required to power the hydrogen pumps. However, that generator would not need to supply literally all the energy going into whatever is getting refueled, just enough to pump the gas.

Honda Believes In Hydrogen Enough To Invest In It

To some observers, hydrogen may seem like an industrial waste of money. However, GM and Honda are willing to gamble substantial funds on the bet that it will prove viable and profitable. While the two companies’ BEV collaborations have been uneven, they seem a lot more committed to their hydrogen partnership.

Honda’s Other EV Plans

Despite the end of the joint-platform project, Honda has not bowed out of the EV market. Honda has shown its own independently-developed EVs at CES. In defiance of the tired American cliché that “no one buys sedans anymore,” one of them is a sedan (though Honda called it the British term “Saloon”). The other is a large passenger van. Both strongly suggest that Honda isn’t looking to develop a line of economical EVs after canceling the would-have-been lineup that it nearly made with GM. Honda has also introduced a new logo for its upcoming EVs. It is essentially the familiar Honda badge with the outer square border removed.

Honda Is Sharing Its Hydrogen Future With General Motors

When it comes to fuels from the coming post-gasoline era, Honda is reaching over the Pacific Ocean and tying its future with GM’s. This partnership is more daring for Honda than it is for General Motors, as Honda has never needed a bailout. While any inter-company alliance can dissolve after a few board meetings and perhaps some perfunctory lawsuits, Honda and GM appear to be in this for the long haul. The auto industry’s long, often painful transition to EVs has put unlikely bedfellows under the same sheets.