By The Canadian Press
Published: May 13, 2025
Honda employees work along the vehicle assembly line before an event announcing plans for a Honda electric vehicle battery plant in Alliston, Ont., on Thursday, April 25, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
TORONTO — Honda Canada is postponing a $15-billion electric vehicle investment project in Ontario, including a proposed EV battery plant and retooled vehicle assembly facility.
Honda Canada spokesman Ken Chiu says due to the recent slowdown in the EV market, Honda has announced an approximate two-year postponement of the comprehensive value chain investment project in Canada.
Chiu says the company will continue to evaluate the timing and project progression as market conditions change.
The decision has no impact on current employment at the Honda manufacturing plant in Alliston, Ont., he added.
Honda’s EV project in Canada includes a retooled assembly plant, an electric vehicle battery plant in close proximity, as well as two key battery parts facilities located elsewhere in Ontario.
The plan was first announced in April 2024 and was to receive support from the federal and Ontario governments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2025.
TORONTO — Honda Canada is postponing a $15-billion electric vehicle investment project in Ontario, including a proposed EV battery plant and retooled vehicle assembly facility.
Honda Canada spokesman Ken Chiu says due to the recent slowdown in the EV market, Honda has announced an approximate two-year postponement of the comprehensive value chain investment project in Canada.
Chiu says the company will continue to evaluate the timing and project progression as market conditions change.
The decision has no impact on current employment at the Honda manufacturing plant in Alliston, Ont., he added.
Honda’s EV project in Canada includes a retooled assembly plant, an electric vehicle battery plant in close proximity, as well as two key battery parts facilities located elsewhere in Ontario.
The plan was first announced in April 2024 and was to receive support from the federal and Ontario governments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2025.
Honda signals profit drop, warns of US$3 billion tariff hit
By Bloomberg News
Published: May 13, 2025
Honda Motor Co. is expecting a ¥450 billion (US$3 billion) hit to its full-year profit as it braces for the fallout of U.S. President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs, joining rivals reeling from the trade war.
Operating profit is forecast to decline to around ¥500 billion in the current fiscal year through March 2026 — far short of analyst estimates of ¥1.35 trillion. Profit in the fiscal year ended March 31 came in at ¥1.21 trillion following a weak fourth quarter, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
“The impact of tariff policies in various countries on our business has been very significant, and frequent revisions are made, making it difficult to formulate an outlook,” Chief Executive Officer Toshihiro Mibe told reporters. The automaker, which has already outlined plans to move production of its hybrid Civic from Japan to the U.S., is considering whether to expand U.S. production capacity in response to tariffs.
Honda joins a growing list of global automakers tallying the cost of Trump’s tariffs. General Motors Co. has slashed its full-year profit guidance by as much as $5 billion, while Ford Motor Co. is bracing for a $1.5 billion annual hit. Toyota Motor Corp. sees a $1.2 billion profit drop in just April and May. On Monday, Mazda Motor Co. said it was withholding its annual guidance until the dust settles, adding the impact from tariffs could amount to as much as $68 million in April alone.
The U.S. represents the biggest market for five of Japan’s largest automakers, including Honda. The company sold roughly 1.4 million cars in the U.S. in 2024, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, almost 40% of which were imported.
Honda also Tuesday said it has postponed plans to establish an electric vehicle supply chain in Ontario, Canada, by two years, owing to a downturn in demand.
The previously announced plan included a battery plant and an EV factory with an annual production capacity of 240,000 vehicles.
“The growth of the electric vehicle market has slowed more than initially expected, making it difficult to anticipate further progress,” Mibe said. Changes to the company’s electrification strategy will be explained in detail during a business update on May 20.
While Honda may have dodged a bullet by walking away from a deal to tie up with struggling rival Nissan Motor Co., it will have to go it alone as the global auto market is roiled by the U.S. tariffs and intense competition in China.
Honda had signed an agreement with Nissan in December to combine both brands under a single holding company. But negotiations quickly began to deteriorate, and ultimately the alliance was formally ended within a few months. Disagreements between the two legacy brands, who refused to meet on equal footing, drew to a swift close what in theory could have created a titan capable of competing with Toyota and other industry heavyweights.
In one bright spot, Honda’s motorcycle business accounted for half its operating profit, and grew during the previous fiscal year. Its auto segment decreased, mostly in China.
Both trends are expected to continue during the current fiscal year, the company said.
Nicholas Takahashi, Bloomberg News
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
By Bloomberg News
Published: May 13, 2025
Honda Motor Co. is expecting a ¥450 billion (US$3 billion) hit to its full-year profit as it braces for the fallout of U.S. President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs, joining rivals reeling from the trade war.
Operating profit is forecast to decline to around ¥500 billion in the current fiscal year through March 2026 — far short of analyst estimates of ¥1.35 trillion. Profit in the fiscal year ended March 31 came in at ¥1.21 trillion following a weak fourth quarter, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
“The impact of tariff policies in various countries on our business has been very significant, and frequent revisions are made, making it difficult to formulate an outlook,” Chief Executive Officer Toshihiro Mibe told reporters. The automaker, which has already outlined plans to move production of its hybrid Civic from Japan to the U.S., is considering whether to expand U.S. production capacity in response to tariffs.
Honda joins a growing list of global automakers tallying the cost of Trump’s tariffs. General Motors Co. has slashed its full-year profit guidance by as much as $5 billion, while Ford Motor Co. is bracing for a $1.5 billion annual hit. Toyota Motor Corp. sees a $1.2 billion profit drop in just April and May. On Monday, Mazda Motor Co. said it was withholding its annual guidance until the dust settles, adding the impact from tariffs could amount to as much as $68 million in April alone.
The U.S. represents the biggest market for five of Japan’s largest automakers, including Honda. The company sold roughly 1.4 million cars in the U.S. in 2024, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, almost 40% of which were imported.
Honda also Tuesday said it has postponed plans to establish an electric vehicle supply chain in Ontario, Canada, by two years, owing to a downturn in demand.
The previously announced plan included a battery plant and an EV factory with an annual production capacity of 240,000 vehicles.
“The growth of the electric vehicle market has slowed more than initially expected, making it difficult to anticipate further progress,” Mibe said. Changes to the company’s electrification strategy will be explained in detail during a business update on May 20.
While Honda may have dodged a bullet by walking away from a deal to tie up with struggling rival Nissan Motor Co., it will have to go it alone as the global auto market is roiled by the U.S. tariffs and intense competition in China.
Honda had signed an agreement with Nissan in December to combine both brands under a single holding company. But negotiations quickly began to deteriorate, and ultimately the alliance was formally ended within a few months. Disagreements between the two legacy brands, who refused to meet on equal footing, drew to a swift close what in theory could have created a titan capable of competing with Toyota and other industry heavyweights.
In one bright spot, Honda’s motorcycle business accounted for half its operating profit, and grew during the previous fiscal year. Its auto segment decreased, mostly in China.
Both trends are expected to continue during the current fiscal year, the company said.
Nicholas Takahashi, Bloomberg News
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Honda forecasts 70% net profit drop citing ‘tariff impact’
By AFP
May 13, 2025
Honda said it expects net profit of 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) in the year to March 2026 - Copyright AFP Richard A. Brooks
Tomohiro OSAKI, Hiroshi HIYAMA
Japan’s Honda Motor on Tuesday forecast a 70 percent drop in net profit for the 2025-26 financial year as US trade tariffs weigh on the global auto industry.
The announcement comes after rival Toyota, the world’s top-selling carmaker, predicted a 35 percent year-on-year drop in annual net profit because of the levies and other factors.
Honda said it expected net profit of 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) in the 12 months to March 2026.
“Tariff impact and recovery efforts” will have a negative effect on operating profit, it warned, estimating they will cost the company around 450 billion yen over the year.
In an attempt to rev up the US auto industry, President Donald Trump last month imposed a 25 percent toll on imported vehicles, dealing a major blow to Japanese carmakers.
“The impact of tariff policies in various countries on our business has been very significant, and frequent revisions are being made, making it difficult to formulate an outlook,” CEO Toshihiro Mibe told reporters Tuesday.
Honda, Japan’s second-biggest automaker after Toyota, logged net profit of 835 billion yen in the past financial year, a drop of almost 25 percent on-year and well short of its February forecast of 950 billion yen.
“Our automobile business experienced a decline in sales volume mainly in China and the ASEAN region” in Southeast Asia, Mibe said.
It was also “impacted by increased incentives for EV sales in North America”, although “hybrid vehicle sales expanded”.
But Honda may still have a better chance of weathering Trump’s tariff onslaught than its competitors in Japan, analysts said.
Late last month Trump softened the auto tariffs by signing an executive order to limit the impact of overlapping levies on carmakers.
He also said he would give the industry a two-year grace period to move supply chains back to the United States.
This is good news for Honda, which builds more than 60 percent of the vehicles it sells in the United States in the country.
That is “the highest percentage” of all major Japanese automakers, Bloomberg Intelligence auto analyst Tatsuo Yoshida told AFP ahead of the results.
That means the impact from tariffs will be “comparatively smaller for Honda”, he added.
By AFP
May 13, 2025
Honda said it expects net profit of 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) in the year to March 2026 - Copyright AFP Richard A. Brooks
Tomohiro OSAKI, Hiroshi HIYAMA
Japan’s Honda Motor on Tuesday forecast a 70 percent drop in net profit for the 2025-26 financial year as US trade tariffs weigh on the global auto industry.
The announcement comes after rival Toyota, the world’s top-selling carmaker, predicted a 35 percent year-on-year drop in annual net profit because of the levies and other factors.
Honda said it expected net profit of 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) in the 12 months to March 2026.
“Tariff impact and recovery efforts” will have a negative effect on operating profit, it warned, estimating they will cost the company around 450 billion yen over the year.
In an attempt to rev up the US auto industry, President Donald Trump last month imposed a 25 percent toll on imported vehicles, dealing a major blow to Japanese carmakers.
“The impact of tariff policies in various countries on our business has been very significant, and frequent revisions are being made, making it difficult to formulate an outlook,” CEO Toshihiro Mibe told reporters Tuesday.
Honda, Japan’s second-biggest automaker after Toyota, logged net profit of 835 billion yen in the past financial year, a drop of almost 25 percent on-year and well short of its February forecast of 950 billion yen.
“Our automobile business experienced a decline in sales volume mainly in China and the ASEAN region” in Southeast Asia, Mibe said.
It was also “impacted by increased incentives for EV sales in North America”, although “hybrid vehicle sales expanded”.
But Honda may still have a better chance of weathering Trump’s tariff onslaught than its competitors in Japan, analysts said.
Late last month Trump softened the auto tariffs by signing an executive order to limit the impact of overlapping levies on carmakers.
He also said he would give the industry a two-year grace period to move supply chains back to the United States.
This is good news for Honda, which builds more than 60 percent of the vehicles it sells in the United States in the country.
That is “the highest percentage” of all major Japanese automakers, Bloomberg Intelligence auto analyst Tatsuo Yoshida told AFP ahead of the results.
That means the impact from tariffs will be “comparatively smaller for Honda”, he added.
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