[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by DF454

Hey Jim,

In your post above you mentioned that Honda's new EV is based off of the Chevy Blazer EV. Can you post a link to any news articles about that relation ship? I'm surprised Honda made a deal with GM and not Toyota or Hyundai for EV tech.


Thanks, David

I’m not going to post an article, they’re actually easy to find, but I will give you firsthand knowledge of the GM / Honda relationship because I was very involved in the beginning of it. Long story, so grab a drink.

Back in the ‘90s automakers were acquiring each other and forging “strategic cooperations” every other week. This is the time where we saw DaimlerChrysler, NissanRenault and other combinations pop up. Honda was very concerned about being forced to collaborate with Toyota. They hate Toyota. So Honda and GM spent a lot of time discussing paths to collaborate without any financial or stock tie-ups. I was Director of Powertrain Portfolio Planning at the time and we were developing what is now known as the High Feature V6. The 3.6L that’s in Camaro since 2010, plus a shitton of other GM vehicles. It was supposed to debut in the Saturn Vue Redline, but it was running late on development. So was the transmission that was supposed to go in it. So GM and Honda struck a deal to use the Honda 3.5L V6 and 5-speed AT in the Saturn Vue Redline for the first generation car. The second gen switched over to the HFV6.

Blazer EV / Prologue is the exact opposite scenario. Honda realized they needed to jump into the EV game, but they knew they were way behind. So GM threw their buddies at Honda a lifeline and said “we’ll give you a head start on your EV strategy by letting you use our Ultium batteries and platform and build in our plants (Spring Hill for ZDX, Ramos Ariszpe for Prologue). Second gen you’re on your own.” They then agreed a little later to collaborate on a small affordable EV. That agreement has since been dissolved, but they are still working together on Fuel Cell technology.

Shortly after the Vue collaboration GM and Honda started working together on Fuel Cell technology. Honda engineers have been located at GM’s Pontiac, MI propulsion engineering center ever since then. My office was on that campus when all this started so I know about this firsthand and also spent some time in project meetings on fuel cell topics. They’re still there. GM and Honda just recently opened up a plant to manufacture fuel cell stacks in Brownstown Twp. That plant used to produce the battery packs for Chevrolet Volt.