Japanese car giant Honda has announced it will part ways with the FIA Formula One (F1) World Championship as an engine supplier at the conclusion of the 2021 season, so it can focus on the transition to battery electric vehicles..
The move means that Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri, both of which currently use Honda engines in their F1 vehicles, will need to look for a new engine supplier before the start of the 2022 season.
Honda’s decision came as a surprise to the F1 world, though maybe the writing was on the wall, for those willing to look. Despite securing three wins in 2019 and two wins so far in 2020, Honda’s recent track record in Formula One has been difficult.
More importantly, however, Honda has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 amidst what it describes as “a once-in-one-hundred-years period of great transformation” for the automobile industry.
Part of Honda’s efforts to move towards carbon neutrality was the creation of an R&D unit called the Innovative Research Excellence, Power Unit & Energy centre.
The new centre, announced in February and made effective in April, brings together a variety of research and development functions for power unit and energy technologies for motorcycles, automobiles, power products, and business jets.
In announcing its departure from Formula One, Honda said the new centre would be used to “funnel its corporate resources in research and development into the areas of future power unit and energy technologies, including fuel cell vehicle (FCV) and battery EV (BEV) technologies” which it says will be the core of carbon-free technologies.
“To this end, our current goal of ‘electrifying two-thirds of our global automobile unit sales in 2030’, will become a checkpoint we must pass before we get to the 2050 goal, and therefore we must further accelerate the introduction of our carbon-free technologies.” said Takahiro Hachigo, Honda’s president and CEO.
This serves as a strong signal to Formula One of the way in which other auto manufacturers could go, as the world – and automakers in particular – look to switch away from fossil fuel-based economies and technologies.
“As for other electric vehicle races, we don’t have any specific plans for participating as of now,” said Hachigo in a press conference announcing their departure from F1.
“At this time we are aiming for carbon neutrality in 2050. Now, this will be a big challenge for Honda so I hope that our fans will support us for us taking on that challenge as well.”
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.