Before Honda pulls the sheet off a new EV model in its new 0 Series lineup in 2025, it invited us out to Japan to take a peak behind the curtain at its global R&D center, production facilities, and some other cool spots to share insight on the technology it’s looking to implement in future 0 models. We also were one of the first in the world to test drive Honda’s new 0 Series EV architecture.
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Honda’s 0 Series is beginning to take shape
As you’ll learn below, there is still a lot we don’t know about the technology we will see in Honda’s future all-electric 0 Series lineup. However, what we have learned is encouraging and exciting from a Japanese automaker that has been a bit late to the BEV party.
Honda unveiled plans for its new 0 Series in Las Vegas during CES 2024, where it unveiled two initial concept cars it said would serve as precursors to production models for the global market. That unveiling included the “Space Hub” being developed under the idea of “augmenting people’s daily lives,” and the “Saloon” (seen above and below” it describes as its flagship concept to its 0 Series design language.
At that time, we learned Honda’s first passenger EV, the 0 Series, will be based on the Saloon concept and is expected to hit the North American market in 2026. We are unsure exactly how the production model will differ from the radical and sleek-looking Saloon. Still, after spending a week in Japan with Honda, we have a better idea of what sort of technology and production techniques the innovative OEM is looking to implement.
Much of it is encouraging, and some of it is downright impressive, but many questions remain about which of the technologies introduced to the media will make their way into 0 Series EVs and when. Still, there’s a lot of cool stuff to unpack here, so let’s dig in.
Honda introduced a slew of new EV tech in the works
To better understand the technology that went into Honda’s nascent lineup of BEV models in development, the company invited several media from around the world, including Electrek, to a Honda 0 Tech Meeting, held at its Global Plaza in Tochigi, Japan, about 140 km north of Tokyo.
During the meeting, we saw a presentation led by Honda Motor Co. director, president, and CEO Toshihiro Mibe and Toshihiro Akiwa, the vice president and head of BEV development. Here, the Honda executives broke down several new ideas generated for the 0 series, a name that represents a fresh start and a new generation of vehicles for the all-electric era.
Design and development are centered around three core beliefs – “Thin, light, and wise,” which are at the center of Honda’s new dedicated EV platform that will help it deliver thin and low-weight styling as we saw in the Saloon concept.
The new (yet-to-be-named) platform has adopted 2.0 GPa grade hot stamping steel material, created using new megacasting machines you can see more of below. The BEV-specific architecture enabled Honda to develop thinner battery packs using some really interesting friction welding to allow for maximum efficiency and thus range.
Honda is not trying to blow people away with its range, but instead has tried to maximize space and maintain lightweight and efficiency to help keep production costs down and deliver new models that are more affordable. Furthermore, the automaker shared it is targeting EPA range of around 300 miles.
New technologies like a heat pump and Honda’s new “e-Axle” motors and inverters have evolved from its hybrid EV developmen but have been downsized to achieve a horizontal layout to maximize cabin space and allow for lower right heights.
After our presentation and Q&A with Honda’s executives, we got a chance to walk through and experience expert explanations and demonstrations from the Honda BEV team. These included several new technologies that Honda will implement or at least try to implement in future models.
This included a look at the 0 platform’s new steering stability index that can flex the vehicle body in real time to control each tire’s load while cornering. This body rigidity design also allowed Honda to reduce the vehicle’s overall weight by 100kg (220 lbs) compared to previous EV models like the Prologue.
We also got a look at Honda’s ECU placement as well as a glimpse at how it intends to implement sensor technology like LiDAR into 0 Series ADAS that it says will aim to offer “experiences that make people want to go out more spontaneously” and will eventually allow for hands off, eyes off Level 3 automated driving. Per Honda:
Honda 0 Series models will be equipped with a system that enables the expansion of the range of driving conditions where driver assistance and Level 3 automated driving (eyes off) will be available. The expansion will start with eyes-off technology available in traffic congestion on highways, then continue through the OTA updates of the functions.
Other UX demos we saw were things like AI-integration and facial recognition software that could enable future Honda 0 vehicles to recognize an owner walking up and open the door for them. Better still, this technology can recognize if you are carrying a child and will open a rear door, or if they are in a stroller, also open the trunk for stowage.
Inside the cabin, Honda’s in-house OS can recognize the driver and their passengers, and can even distinguish if a pet is in the car and suggest that it may be time for them to stop for a potty break. Lastly, we got to demo an interesting social feature Honda is exploring in which a driver can loop their friend into the car ride while they’re at home via VR headset.
Check out the video we captured below. We were connected live to some other Honda employees in another part of Japan and rode along with them. We were able to communicate and request songs, and even stand up and get a view from outside the car as it moved.
A lot of these technologies were cool to see, but aside from the powertrain and battery technology, Honda wouldn’t give any sort of confirmation or timeline as to when they will actually be implemented in a production model. Clearly they’re still working a lot of technology out, and that’s fine, as we won’t see the first Honda 0 EV (based on the Saloon) until 2026, but six more BEV models are expected to arrive by 2030.
Since we have yet to see a bonafide Honda 0 Series production model emerge, we couldn’t drive one. However, the automaker did offer an opportunity to test out the new 0 architecture installed beneath some of its existing models.
Test driving Honda’s new 0 Series architecture
It wasn’t a Saloon, but it was something. From Tochigi, Honda arranged an opportunity for Electrek to be one of the first to actually drive its new 0 platform, providing media with two all-electric prototypes to test out.
They may look like a traditional CR-V and Accord from the images below, but these unique builds are 100% electric, and feature the e-Axle and thinner battery technology mentioned above. Due to time contraints, we were only able to drive one to the other prototype, and only had a few minutes with it. I chose the sedan thinking it was lower and more similar in design to the Saloon concept, and got to do three leaps around Honda’s local test track.
My first impression is that it drives like an EV. The response is quick, acceleration is smooth but not mind-boggling, and the handling was quite comfortable, even at high speeds. Forgive me for my lack of real detail, but it’s hard to critique architecture alone, especially when driving in a vehicle body that was not specifically designed for the 0 architecture.
Because of this, the prototypes still had mechanical steering as opposed to steer-by-wire planned for the production model 0 BEVs, so I wasn’t able to get the full experience of Hond’s next generation of vehicles, but it still was a joy to test out.
Honda also had a static Honda e BEV it was using as a UX concept. This was cool because customers may someday be able to choose different engine noises from renowned models like the RSX or Civic Type-R to flood their BEV cabin with revving sounds. There’s also an option to choose Honda Jet noises. Have a listen:
Like most of the tech we saw in Tochigi, Honda could not confirm or deny if and when this UX feature would be available to customers. However, it’s an excellent idea for those who want to go electric but still love the roar of a Honda engine, especially since the sound is not projected outside the vehicle for the rest of us to hear.
From what I could gather, Honda’s architecture is on the right track. Still, I left the 2024 Tech Meeting with more questions than answers about what technologies will be implemented in the future. Still, the trip had plenty of other highlights, including a look at Honda’s new production techniques, which admittedly blew me away.
Other highlights from the Honda Tech Meeting 2024
In my opinion, one of the most interesting aspects of our tour around Honda’s facilities was a look at its pilot production lines where future 0 BEVs will be built in Japan. This included a demonstration of Honda’s new 6,000-ton megacasting machine – six of which will go into operation at Honda’s US production facility in Ohio.
Honda shared that it was able to reduce the number of parts in its Intelligent Power Unit (IPU) from 60 to 5 using megacasting, and has taken an approach to utilize a dedicated case piece to a common part using truly amazing friction welding that will enable Honda to more efficiently build modular EV IPUs to suite a number of body sizes.
Another demonstration I found quite interesting was the world’s first application of Honda’s proprietary Constant DC Chopping (CDC) welding technology. The technique maximizes heat distribution to a weld, reducing vehicle weight while increasing passive safety performance. Here’s it in action. Notice how there are no sparks?
Electrek’s take
All in all, Honda is definitely making a conscious effort to compete in the BEV market with its upcoming 0 Series. I saw a lot of innovation, particularly within its pilot production lines, but there was a feeling of secrecy as Honda is still keeping much of its hand close to its chest.
We media have heard a lot of phrases like “someday” and “in the future,” but there are no clear timelines for when and if some of the introduced technology will make its way into production models. Perhaps it was a tad too early for a Tech Day, but it was an informative and exciting experience nonetheless.
Much of the tech Honda introduced has already been implemented into BEVs currently on the market, but it’s quite clear that the Japanese automaker is looking to optimize and master those elements to stand out. I see a genuine opportunity here for Honda to truly embrace BEVs and become the leader in the space across all Japanese automakers.
The Saloon concept is much larger and roomier up close, and its overall design is unlike anything else on the road right now. It will be exciting to see how close a production 0 Series version comes to that initial design, but at this point, we still don’t know.
One thing we did learn, is that Honda is planning to unveil a second 0 series production model this January at CES 2025. According to the automaker, this new BEV model “will be the embodiment in product form of the technologies and electrification concept introduced during the 0 Tech Meeting 2024.”
I was thinking about skipping CES this year, but now I want to see what Honda unveils next. We will be sure to report back at that time.
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Over the last few days, Elon Musk has been making several statements claiming that autonomous driving systems that use lidar and radar sensors are more dangerous than Tesla’s camera-only computer vision approach because the system gets confused when interpreting data from different sensors.
It’s not only false, Musk told me directly that he agreed that radar and vision could be safer than just vision, right after he had Tesla remove the radars from its vehicles.
Tesla has taken a controversial approach, using only cameras as sensors for driving inputs in its self-driving technology. In contrast, most other companies use cameras in conjunction with radar and lidar sensors.
When Tesla first announced that all its cars produced onward have the hardware capable of “full self-driving” up to level 5 autonomous capacity in 2016, it included a front-facing radar in its self-driving hardware suite.
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However, in 2021, after not having achieved anything more than a level 2 driver assist (ADAS) system with its self-driving effort, Elon Musk announced a move that he called “Tesla Vision”, which consists of moving Tesla’s self-driving effort only to use inputs from cameras.
Here’s what I wrote in 2021 about Musk sharing his plan for Tesla to only use cameras and neural nets:
CEO Elon Musk has been hyping the vision-only update as “mind-blowing.” He insists that it will lead to a true level 5 autonomous driving system by the end of the year, but he has gotten that timeline wrong before.
We are now in 2025, and unlike what Musk claimed, Tesla has yet to deliver on its self-driving promises, but the CEO is doubling down on his vision-only approach.
The controversial billionaire is making headlines this week for a series of new statements attacking Tesla’s self-driving rivals and their use of radar and lidar sensors.
Earlier this week, Musk took a jab at Waymo and claimed that “lidar and radar reduce safety”:
Lidar and radar reduce safety due to sensor contention. If lidars/radars disagree with cameras, which one wins? This sensor ambiguity causes increased, not decreased, risk. That’s why Waymos can’t drive on highways.We turned off radars in Teslas to increase safety. Cameras ftw.
The assertion that “Waymos can’t drive on highways” is simply false. Waymo has been conducting fully driverless employee testing on freeways in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles for years, and it is expected to make this technology available to rider-only rides soon.
Tesla is in a similar situation with its Robotaxi: they don’t drive on freeways without an employee supervisor.
Musk later added:
LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation. As I have said many times, there is a role for LiDAR in some circumstances and I personally oversaw the development of LiDAR for the SpaceX Dragon docking with Space Station. I am well aware of its strengths and weaknesses.
It’s not true that Waymos can’t work in “any heavy precipitation.”
Here’s a video of a Waymo vehicle driving by itself in heavy rain:
In comparison, Tesla’s own Robotaxi terms of service mention that it “may be limited or unavailable in inclement weather.”
There’s plenty of evidence that Musk is wrong and misleading with these statements, but furthermore, he himself admitted that radar sensors can make Tesla’s vision system safer.
‘Vision with high-res radar would be better than pure vision’
In May 2021, as Tesla began removing radar sensors from its vehicle lineup and transitioning to a vision-only approach, I was direct messaging (DMing) Musk to learn more about the surprising move.
In the conversation, he was already making the claim that sensor contention is lowering safety as he did this week in new comments attacking Waymo.
He wrote at the time:
The probability of safety will be higher with pure vision than vision+radar, not lower. Vision has become so good that radar actually reduces signal/noise.
However, what was more interesting is what he said shortly after claiming that:
Musk admitted that “vision with high-resolution radar would be better than pure vision”. However, he claimed that such a radar didn’t exist.
In the same conversation, I pointed Musk to existing high-definition millimeter wave radars, but he didn’t respond.
It was still early for that technology in 2021, but high-definition millimeter wave radars are now commonly used by companies developing autonomous driving technologies, including Waymo.
Waymo uses six high-definition radars in its system:
In short, Musk was already concerned about sensor contention in 2021, but he admitted that the problem would be worth solving with higher-definition radars, which already existed then and are becoming more common now.
Yet, he criticizes companies using radar and lidar, which work similarly to high-resolution radars but on different wavelengths, for even attempting sensor fusion.
It’s not impossible because Tesla can’t do it
Part of the problem here appears to be that Musk thinks something doesn’t work because Tesla can’t make it work, and he doesn’t want to admit that others are solving the sensor fusion problem.
Tesla simply couldn’t solve sensor fusion, so it focused on achieving autonomy solely through camera vision. However, those who continued to work on the issue have made significant progress and are now reaping the rewards.
Waymo and Baidu, both of which have level 4 autonomous driving systems currently commercially operating without supervision, unlike Tesla, have heavily invested in sensor fusion.
Amir Husain, an AI entrepreneur who sits on the Boards of Advisors for IBM Watson and the Department of Computer Science at UT Austin, points to advancements in the use of Kalman filters and Bayesian techniques to solve sensor noise covariance.
He commented on Musk’s statement regarding the use of radar and lidar sensors:
The issue isn’t a binary disagreement between two sensors. It generates a better estimate than any individual sensor can produce on its own. They all have a margin of error. Fusion helps reduce this.
If Musk’s argument held, why would the human brain use eyes, ears, and touch to estimate object location? Why would aircraft combine radar, IRST, and other passive sensors to estimate object location? This is a fundamental misunderstanding of information theory. Every channel has noise. But redundancy reduces uncertainty.
Musk’s main argument to focus on cameras and neural nets has been that the roads are designed for humans to drive and humans drive using their eyes and brain, which are the hardware and software equivalent of cameras (eyes) and neural nets (brain).
Now, most other companies developing autonomous driving technologies are also focusing on this, but to surpass humans and achieve greater levels of safety through precision and redundancy, they are also adding radar and lidar sensors to their systems.
Electrek’s Take
Musk painted Tesla into a corner with its vision-only approach, and now he is trying to mislead people into thinking that it is the only one that can work, when there’s no substantial evidence to support this claim.
Now, let me be clear, Musk is partly correct. When poorly fused, multi-sensor data introduces noise, making it more challenging to operate an autonomous driving system.
However, who said that this is an unsolvable problem? Others appear to be solving it, and we are seeing the results in Waymo’s and Baidu’s commercially available rider-only taxi services.
If you can take advantage of radar’s ability to detect distance and speed as well as work through rain, fog, dust, and snow, why wouldn’t you use it?
As he admitted in the DMs with me in 2021, Musk is aware of this – hence why he acknowledged that high-resolution radar combined with vision would be safer than vision alone.
The problem is that Tesla hasn’t focused on improving sensor fusion and radar integration in the last 4 years because it has been all-in on vision.
Now, Tesla could potentially still solve self-driving with its vision system, but there’s no evidence that it is close to happening or any safer than other systems, such as Waymo’s, which use radar and lidar sensors.
In fact, Tesla is still only operating an autonomous driving system under the supervision of in-car employees with a few dozen cars, while Waymo has been doing rider-only rides for years and operates over 1,500 autonomous vehicles in the US.
Just like with his “Robotaxi” with supervisors, Musk is trying to create the illusion that Tesla is not only leading in autonomy, but it is the only one that can solve it.
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Trump’s Interior Department halted construction on 704 megawatt (MW) Revolution Wind, the US’s first multi-state offshore wind project that’s already 80% complete. Grid operator ISO New England says the decision is a threat to the grid.
ISO New England released a statement responding to the stop-work order, warning that “delaying the project will increase risks to reliability.”:
As demand for electricity grows, New England must maintain and add to its energy infrastructure. Unpredictable risks and threats to resources – regardless of technology – that have made significant capital investments, secured necessary permits, and are close to completion will stifle future investments, increase costs to consumers, and undermine the power grid’s reliability and the region’s economy now and in the future.
Revolution Wind, a joint development between Ørsted and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, is a 65-turbine project capable of powering around 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut once it’s complete. It was expected to come online next year. The project has created more than 1,200 jobs.
On August 22, the director of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management sent a vague letter to Ørsted commanding it to halt all activities on the fully permitted Revolution Wind, citing “national security interests,” yet providing no details.
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BOEM’s Record of Decision for Revolution Wind, reported in 2023 in Section 4.6, page 185, states that the national security effects of the project would be “negligible and avoidable.”
This latest move echoes Trump’s cancellation in April of New York’s $5 billion Empire Wind 1 project, which was already under construction off New York’s coast. No viable reasons were given for that stop-work order either, and the cancellation was reversed in May.
Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), released the following statement in response to the Revolution Wind order:
The Trump administration’s war on the electricity needed to power the grid continues on all fronts. Halting Revolution Wind is a devastating attack on workers, on electricity customers, and on the investment climate in the US.
New England homeowners will feel this when they tear open their electricity bills and look at the surging costs of keeping the lights on.
This administration has it exactly backwards. It’s trying to prop up clunky, polluting coal plants while doing all it can to halt the fastest growing energy sources of the future – solar and wind power.
It makes no sense to say we have an energy emergency and then make decisions like this. Unfortunately, every American is paying the price for these misguided actions.
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Tesla is teasing a new product release on Friday, August 29th, coming to Europe and the Middle East. It’s likely going to be the Model Y Performance.
On X today, Tesla has teased an upcoming product release coming this friday.
The post is cryptic. It only mentions ‘spoiler alert’ and the date August 29 with what looks like a close up of a vehicle with what appears to be a spoil – hence the “spoiler alert” reference:
There are main suspect is the Model Y Performance due to the spoiler reference.
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Since the Model Y refresh in January, Tesla stopped selling the Model Y Performance. It is due to launch the top performance version under the new design.
When Tesla released the Model 3 refresh in 2024, it took about 4 months for Tesla to launch the new performance version.
Electrek’s Take
The only thing that I find strange with this likely being the Model Y Performance is the fact that they tweeted this from the Europe and Middle East account.
It would be strange for the Model Y Performance to launch there first, but who knows. Maybe Tesla started production at Gigafactory Berlin first.
I don’t think this will have a major impact on Tesla’s business. The Model Y Performance is the least popular version of the best-selling Model Y.
We don’t have the full mix of sales, but I wouldn’t be suprised if it represents less than 10% of Tesla’s Model Y deliveries.
The Model 3 Performance is probably a more popular option within the Model 3 lineup as it is a lot more fun to drive.
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