Honda, how carbon neutrality and circularity can change the face of mobility

Honda talks about its vision of future mobility with the Triple action to zero initiative:circular economy and carbon neutrality among the pillars of the transition.

Of the commitment of Honda for the most "free" mobility of people possible, with zero environmental impact and zero victims from road accidents" we told you months ago.In the meantime, the Japanese manufacturer's road map towards a mobility transition continues apace.And if in the background there is always the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, at the electrical transition (which includes the development of new fuel cell vehicles hydrogen, as we will see later), there is an ever stronger desire to draw on the principles ofcircular economy to achieve optimization in the use of resources, be it producing new compact and lightweight cars, as in the case of the electric concept Sustaina-C, or new tools dedicated to urban mobility, like the compact motorcycle Pocket concept.

Honda, so we want to accelerate our transition

“Sustaina-C Concept, Pocket Concept and SH125i Glass (a limited edition with a paint-free eco-bodywork of the popular electric scooter) represent the change we intend to make as we accelerate Honda's transition from a business model based on mass consumption to a business model based on circularity,” he explained to us Victoria Friend, Head of product compliance & sustainability Honda Motor Europe.“This cannot happen overnight”, underlined Friend, “but by identifying small actions that we can take today we will be able to implement measures with an ever greater impact and achieve carbon neutrality in all our products and our business activities by 2050″.

Cars and motorbikes increasingly "circular"

Sustaina-C Concept and Pocket Concept, together with the electric scooter SH125i in the new “Glass” version, these are the examples that Honda has chosen to highlight its commitment to sustainability and how it is "possible to use innovative materials and create an exclusive design aesthetic, while reducing the CO2 emissions generated by the production process".But what is it about?Of a car and a motorbike, both electric, both compact.And so far…

The ideas come from the production processes and, above all, from circularity of materials employed for their creation.We are talking about panels produced using recycled acrylic resin, coming from end-of-life light clusters, external bodies that do not require painting and which, for this reason, allow, according to what Honda declared, "to reduce emissions during the production process by up to 45 percent", partly thanks to the use of recycled materials and partly because the panels that make up the bodywork of the car do not require painting, a process which, again according to the Japanese manufacturer, "can account for up to 80 percent of CO2 emissions generated by an automotive plant”.

From reducing the extraction of materials to the use of new steels

Innovation is not just in aesthetics.The panels of the vehicles presented by Honda would resist small impacts, cracks, and would have the ability to return to their original shape following minor impacts.Among the characteristics there is also high resistance to atmospheric agents and degradation in sunlight.There's more.

Thanks to a project developed in partnership with Mitsubishi chemical, Honda is experimenting with the reuse of body parts taken from end-of-life vehicles which, once crushed and processed, are reused to create parts of the Sustaina-C concept.“This is one way Honda intends to reduce resource extraction and represents part of its ongoing pursuit of advanced recycling, low-carbon, economical and energy-efficient technologies,” explains a Honda statement.

A technology that can also be applied to other vehicle components and which includes the use of new types of steel, under special surveillance together with coal, in the ranking of major polluters with blast furnaces (fired by coal) for years at the top of the ranking as the largest source of CO2 in many European countries.

Space-Hub, for compact, flexible, lightweight mobility

But Honda's strategy also continues in other directions. Space Hub it is an example of what a vehicle designed to improve people's daily lives could be like.As?With an electric vehicle, compact, lightweight, designed as a flexible space capable of adapting to users.Vehicles like these, belonging to the generation that Honda has identified as 0 Series, could arrive on the market as early as 2026, first in North America, then progressively also in Europe.

Meanwhile, Honda continues its thirty-year commitment to the development of hydrogen cell vehicles:“We are confident that demand for this technology will soon reach the critical mass necessary for full commercial deployment,” explained Ingo Nyhues, Deputy General Manager, European Business Planning & Development, Honda Motor Europe.A development, that of hydrogen, which Honda imagines suitable above all for heavy transport, for infrastructure (stationary power generators) and construction machinery, without forgetting the car, with the marketing of a new electric version in 2024 e:FCEV a fuel cell of the popular model CR-V.