With its small size and low range, Honda doesn't think this concept would sell well in Canada.Jason Tchir/The Globe and Mail
Although the two sharp, practical electric vehicles that Honda unveiled this week won’t be coming to Canada, the company said that’s not a sign it’s hitting the brakes on electrification.
“Honda believes that the electric-powered vehicle is the most efficient thing to do [to reduce carbon dioxide emissions] in the long run, and it’s probably the most realistic,” said Hayato Mori, vice-president of business operations for Honda Canada. “We’re going to be taking steps to get there … but this is a marathon. A lot of other companies thought it was a sprint.”
Honda chief executive officer Toshihiro Mibe speaks to media at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show in front of the newly revealed Honda 0 α (Zero Alpha) compact SUV, which is flanked by the Honda 0 Saloon and the 0 SUV.Jason Tchir/The Globe and Mail
Two new EV concepts – the Super-One compact hatchback and the Honda 0 α (Zero Alpha) compact SUV – shared the stage at the Japan Mobility Show with two concepts from Honda’s new 0 Series line of EVs – the Honda 0 Saloon sedan and the Honda 0 SUV – which were both unveiled at CES last year. We’ll likely see the 0 SUV in Canada in late 2026 and the sedan in early 2027, Mori said. Both will be built in Ohio.
But we “probably won’t ever” see the Alpha – which is smaller, has more conventional styling and is expected to cost less than the Saloon or SUV – because it’s designed for shorter commutes. It will be built in India and initially sold there, before heading to Japan.“
The Alpha is designed to be [driven in cities],” Mori said. “In India, Japan and also Europe, the cities are congested [and] you only go short distances within the city, so they’re more suited to smaller vehicles.”
Exact range hasn’t been announced for any of the 0 series EVs, but for the Alpha, it will “definitely be less than 300 miles” (482 kilometres), which Honda said is, generally, its minimum range for EVs destined for Canada.
That’s because Canadians want the ability to drive longer distances, even during our range-sapping winters, he said.
“Lithium batteries do not like the cold,” he said. “So unfortunately for us, as soon as it gets cold, your range reduces considerably – by 30 [to] 40 per cent.”
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe speaks during a press day of the Japan Mobility Show.Manami Yamada/Reuters
Not so super for Canada?
Limited range is one reason we won’t see the tiny Super-One EV, a Kei-car-style EV hatchback designed to be fun and relatively affordable – but it’s not the only one.
“It’s not going to meet North American crash tests,” Mori said. “You can imagine this on a 400-series highway – it’s not built for that kind of speed. So for you to engineer it that way, then, it’ll become very expensive.”
In Japan, the boxy car, which features a boost mode that simulates driving a gas-powered engine and a seven-speed transmission complete with fake engine noise and vibration, is mainly targeted to men in their 50s and 60s, said Hidetomo Horita, the car’s project leader. It’s smaller than the Honda e – another city EV that never made it to Canada and was pulled from Europe and the U.K. in 2024 because of low sales – and will launch next year in Japan and the U.K., where it will be known as the Super-N. Range and pricing haven’t been announced.
So could Honda ever sell a tiny city EV here? Mori doesn’t think an entry-level small car with enough range could ever be cheap enough to spur widespread sales – plus, Canadians have been switching from small cars to bigger (and more expensive) SUVs.
The Super-One compact is displayed at the Japan Mobility Show after it was revealed.Jason Tchir/The Globe and Mail
EV demand will grow
In May, Honda chief executive officer Toshihiro Mibe acknowledged what he called a “course correction,” and announced a 30-per-cent cut in global EV research and development spending and a two-year pause on a $15-billion Ontario battery-plant project.
Mibe said then that the shift was mainly because of anticipated U.S. tariffs and Trump administration plans to slash environmental regulations. But Mibe said Honda still plans to launch seven 0 Series models and remains committed to phasing out gasoline engines by 2040.
Battery-electric vehicle (BEV) sales slowed in Canada after Ottawa suddenly paused the $5,000 federal EV rebate in January. The government said in September it was dropping its requirement that 20 per cent of car sales be BEVs or plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) for the 2026 model year. It’s also reviewing its EV mandate, which requires 100 per cent of cars to be BEVs or PHEVs by 2035.
Honda and Toyota have faced criticism for not offering multiple EV models in Canada as soon as other companies and for offering a growing number of conventional hybrids instead. But Honda Canada’s Mori said there simply hadn’t been enough consumer demand.
“We’re not late, we’re timely,” he said. “We design and engineer vehicles based on consumer demand, not based on what the media thinks or what the government wants to do. You’re not the customer, and the government’s not the customer.”
There’s still a “chicken and egg” problem with BEVs – consumers want cheaper EVs and more choices, but companies need to build and sell a higher volume of EVs to bring costs down, Mori said.
Advances in battery technology, including solid-state batteries, could eventually make EVs closer in cost to gas-powered cars – and governments may still need to help for a while by offering rebates, he said.
“The future is here to stay and we are going to continuously invest in EVs,” he said, adding that it expects BEV sales to grow. “EVs are the answer, but we just have to be realistic about [how quickly we can get there].”
The writer was a guest of the automaker. Content was not subject to approval.