The General Motors-Honda pact to co-develop two electric vehicles for the Japanese automaker — buried by an avalanche of coronavirus news last week — deserves a closer look. It’s a rare, big deal.
Because Honda is a fiercely proud company — and doggedly protective of its sterling reputation for engineering and quality — the company doesn’t often put its name on products that weren’t designed in-house or that weren’t designed with a partner it knows well.
Honda’s name will appear, the two partners said Thursday, on two new global electric vehicles being developed by GM. Honda will design the interior and exterior of the vehicles. GM engineers are developing the vehicles’ underpinnings and GM is providing the power.
The partnership will benefit from greater economies of scale, which will help with pricing and profitability.
This is the deepest collaboration Honda has had with a competitor since the 1980s, when Honda and England’s Rover created the Acura Legend/Rover 800, and in…
