Debut at the Consumer Electronic Show 2025 for the two prototypes that closely anticipate a new family of cars: design and efficiency, advanced software and driving pleasure
Not one car but two, with change of tone on the electric car which is told with 65 billion dollars already invested or to be invested by 2030. Or with the facts, with the Japanese method that al Consumer Electronic Show 2025 in Las Vegas it showed not only the novelty, but above all the perspective, the effects of one deep research on aerodynamics, construction systems and software. So there are two prototypes to launch the new Honda 0 Series familyintended to host 7 models by 2030. No one officially confirms how close they are to production, but it is a fact that they are less than 12 months away from entering the market. In the silent ritual of Japanese companies, this means that technical data such as the dimensions or power of the engines will not be communicated so soon, but a fairly clear indication has already arrived: Honda is no longer late.
real challenge
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No Japanese company has so far thought of a 100% electric shift for its entire range, sometimes entering the zero emissions market with “experiment models” as Honda e did. Small, even fun to ride, I’m not at all advanced from a technical point of view. His production exit in 2024 marked a point of no return for the Tokyo house, which has started a very ambitious program for recover and relaunch. The goal now is to produce only electric vehicles powered by batteries or hydrogen by 2040, but it is clear that the real issue lies in surpass Tesla in what Elon Musk’s company already does objectively best. So Honda 0 Series is, first of all, a new level of production. Some elements of the frame will be molded by injecting aluminum into 6,000-ton thrust presses to obtain crucial components that weigh little, are produced in a single pass and guarantee resistance.
sedan and SUV
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It is needed first and foremost more efficiencythat is, less energy consumed per kilometer travelled, and it is around this concept that Honda technicians describe the slim body shape who will have the 0 Series, with the air flows managed to the millimetre on the roof and under the floor, also through mobile elementsall this to have much less resistance. Honda 0 Series Saloonthe sedan, is accompanied on the stage of the Consumer Electronic Show 2025 by its different twin Honda 0 Series Suv. The technical reasoning of distributing the space to the advantage of the passenger compartment is identical, with the characteristic of a very low and unobtrusive floor, but still capable of hosting batteries developed to be thin for up to 90 kWh capacity. All this, in a single or dual engine configuration, i.e. with all-wheel drive. In our first preview test at the test circuit set up in the Tochigi factory we then appreciated the work of the intelligent all-wheel drive and rear multilink and front Macpherson suspensions, again with electronically controlled pneumatic shock absorbers. A rather refined and certainly not banal solution for a platform intended only for electric cars.
Zero slogans
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Between the usual display of slogans that distinguishes the Consumer Electronic Show and what Honda does, there is a head-on collision. The two cars have a level of finish in the bodywork portions practically already from production cars. They undoubtedly look to Volvo in the extreme cleanliness of the external lines, but then they go further in the sequence of joints and edges with a very sporty taste. For materials and design of the components, the passenger compartment is then to be considered definitive in 80% of the detailsexcept for the cloche shape of the steering wheelstill to be decided. The comparison with Tesla starts on the surface, there’s no denying it, but then it goes much deeper.
simplification
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Currently it is ridiculous to imagine an electric car hosting on board the same number of control units and calculation units as a normal combustion car, but it happens, mostly colossal effort that is required of every car manufacturer in rethinking the entire architecture of each system from the fundamentals.
three computers
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Honda has already done it, reducing the on-board computers to only three in what will in effect be Software Defined Vehicles, i.e. vehicles whose essential characteristics and functions will be determined and modified by the software. The central unit is entrusted to Asimo OS, a real operating system developed by Honda which takes its name from the automaton presented in 2000, but which integrates today artificial intelligence functions to guide vehicle dynamics, traction and energy management. This CPU is flanked by a second computer for infotainment functions and a third intended to coordinate the assistance systems, with autonomous driving functions and Honda’s declared objective of eliminating traffic accidents to zero. Even in this, Honda 0 Series presents itself aiming at concrete facts.
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