TOKYO — Honda Motor may have been slow to embrace electric vehicles, similar to its Japanese peers, but the automaker has made large bets to get ahead in the growing market, especially when it comes to EV batteries.
Monday’s announcement that Honda teamed with South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution to build a $4.4 billion EV battery plant in the U.S. was not the automaker’s first move in the sector. The company will spend 43 billion yen ($310 million) to launch a pilot production line that produces all-solid-state batteries, demonstrating that it is going all-in on the next-generation technology.