Honda Pushes Back Its EV Goals To 2050, Shifts Focus Back To Hybrids

Honda reported what is essentially the company’s first loss. This comes after Honda took billions of dollars in losses as a result of an ill-fated attempt to quickly become an all-electric company. In addition to announcing a loss, Honda’s leadership outlined a plan to course-correct that involves a lot more hybrids and an extra decade before it transitions to carbon neutrality.

Unlike Honda, Jaguar seems to be sticking to its EV plan, and now we have a name for its flagship electric super sedan. Many details of this new Jag haven’t been revealed, though the assumption is that it’ll be quite expensive. The Morning Dump is always interested in what auto lending is like, as that’s a great indicator of the relationship between the auto industry, buyers, and the economy at large. In April, things were typically mixed.

That’s all heavy for a Thursday, so I will end the morning with another charming Renault concept.

15 New Hybrids Are Coming, Mostly In North America

For those of playing along at home, last week a Japanese outlet reported that Honda was going to report a $2.5 billion loss, to which Honda responded “We haven’t confirmed that.” It made me wonder if the number was going to be significantly different from that reported estimate. This morning, Honda reported a $2.7 billion loss for FY2026, which ended in March.

That’s not great, though props to Nikkei Asia for getting it basically right. The company has never lost money in the entire time it’s been a public entity, going back 69 years. The blame has been put on the company’s lofty goal of selling only electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles by 2040, which involved a huge investment in electric vehicle production in the United States. That goal is now reset to 2050.

Many people are upset that Honda canceled all of its electric cars, and there’s probably going to be some point in the future where that looks like an overreaction. It’s not. The EVs that Honda was developing were not the right ones for the market. They wouldn’t have sold well. Even if the IRA had been left in place I don’t think they would have worked.

How’d we get here?

There’s a rough quote in Bloomberg this morning that explains some of it:

“The management group there has been shielded too long by a super profitable motorcycle business that allows them to push problems with the automotive business under the rug,” said Christopher Richter, a senior analyst at CLSA Securities Japan. “The motorcycle business has become a crutch for Honda that prevents them from taking a serious look at their automotive business.”

Almost one in three motorcycles sold globally carries the Honda badge. The unit generates a majority of the company’s operating profit despite accounting for less than a fifth of sales. In India, one of the world’s fastest growing motorcycle markets, Honda expects annual production to reach 8 million units in 2028, up from 6.25 million in 2026.

I don’t think that’s wrong. Honda has the best-selling hybrid in the United States, but it should offer way more hybrids, which is what Toyota is doing. A more thoughtful and realistic Honda could have balanced hybrid development with continued work on EVs, though Honda doesn’t have the resources that Toyota has at its disposal, so it can’t afford to do everything simultaneously.

Honda isn’t entirely alone here, of course, as most major automakers have taken huge hits on their EV plans. The difference is that Honda was too late, and doesn’t have a lot of high margin trucks and SUVs to fall back on for profits. In order to reach new heights of income, Honda’s plan is to make a lot more hybrids.

Starting in 2027, Honda will begin launching its next-generation hybrid models featuring both an all-new hybrid system and platform. Honda is planning to launch 15 next-generation hybrid models globally by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2030, primarily in North America, which is one of the priority regions. In North America, in 2029, Honda will launch large-size hybrid models, in the D-segment or above.

For Acura dealers, the new Acura hybrid is better-late-than-never. The extension of many of its core products isn’t great, but Honda doesn’t have much of a choice. Even working at breakneck speed, it takes more than six months to develop new powertrains.

Jaguar’s New Flagship EV Is The Type 01

The way Jaguar’s media site works is that you download a giant ZIP file, and get a 27 mb version of the above image with a wordmark and a 27 mb version of it without, as well as a 6 mb MPEG movie of the reveal.

That’s a lot of pixels to say that the controversial Jaguar Type 00 concept will be called the Type 01. What does Type 01 stand for?

In Jaguar Type 01, the ‘0’ represents electric propulsion and zero tailpipe emissions; ‘1’ denotes its status as the first Jaguar of a new era. Designed, developed and built in the heart of the UK.

The ‘Type’ designation unites the brand’s history of innovation in design, technology and performance with the most advanced Jaguar ever. The first of its type, with unmistakable presence achieved through an innovative new body architecture. Tri‑motor technology delivers more than 1,000PS and over 1,300Nm of torque.

‘Type’ naming first appeared on the Le Mans race‑winning C‑type of 1951. On the road, it came to represent two characters in one car: an engaging drive with deep reserves of power, plus refinement and composure. The E‑type and the more recent F‑TYPE are exemplars.

Ah, that explains it.

Credit Availability Slightly Improved In April, While Terms Got Longer

The chart above shows the Dealertrack Credit Availability Index, which looks at all auto loans for a month and offers a single number to indicate how much credit is available in the market. There are a lot of factors that go into consumer credit, including how hard it is to get approved, how many subprime loans are being given out, loan terms, and yield spreads. With a baseline of 100, anything a lot higher or a lot lower indicates a loose or tight credit market, respectively.

You can see the initial concern of the pandemic, followed by lower interest rates (and probably overly loose lending standards) that sent credit availability to a high level of 2022. The resulting inflation and increased rates inverted credit availability, and we’ve been slowly marching back. Some of this change is the narrowing of yield spreads and generally more favorable rate environment.

Some of it, though, is longer loan terms, which, as Cox Automotive points out, is not great:

For consumers who financed in April, this represented a tangible improvement in borrowing cost. However, the broader picture carries important cautions. Loan terms reached a new all-time high of 29.7% with terms greater than 72 months, meaning more consumers are extending repayment to 6 or more years to manage monthly payments. Combined with negative equity that remains nearly 540 bps above year-ago levels, consumers face compounding financial risk that can be difficult to unwind, and should carefully consider the full terms of any financing offer, particularly total loan length and overall cost.

This all works so long as it all works.

Renault’s Journée à la Plage

One of the perks of writing TMD is that I can justify adding a post about a car we’d otherwise probably not cover. For instance, this is the second post on a variant of the Renault 4 (the other being the Roland-Garros edition). This one is the JP4x4 Concept and it’s meant for going to the beach.

Renault 4 JP4x4 Concept makes its debut on 18 May on the Renault stand at the 2026 Roland-Garros French Open. A fresh take on the Plein Air (1969) and JP4 (1981) versions of the original Renault 4, it reboots the ‘leisure’ styling of these vehicles with its playful, upbeat design. It also adds a touch of adventure with its four-wheel drive system.

Although the name is a direct tribute to the original JP4, it could also stand for “journée à la plage” (a day at the beach) with Renault 4. Renault 4 JP4x4 Concept is every inch a chic and modern beach car in terms of both its physical features and the equipment designed for sport and leisure.

Dang, now I need to import an original JP4.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

I don’t listen to a lot of dark, hard metal. It’s not normally my thing, although I get the appeal. The Jaguar post today made me really want to figure out some sort of Type 0- joke, but it didn’t quite work. Instead, enjoy Type O Negative with “I Don’t Wanna Be Me.”

The Big Question

You can import any French car of any French era for a weekend car. What are you getting?

Top photo: Honda