CES 2025: Honda Zeroes in on Two New EV Models and Renesas Partnership
What you’ll learn:
- Honda introduced preproduction versions of its new Zero product lines at CES 2025—the Honda 0 Saloon and the Honda 0 SUV.
- Renesas and Honda will partner up whereby Renesas would provide the advanced processing needed to support ADAS and AI features in these vehicles.
Honda seems to have been hitting the speed dating scene with electric vehicles the past few years. The company’s Prolog, produced in partnership with General Motors, is said to be doing extremely well—better than the Chevy Blazer EV that shares the same vehicle platform. Their joint development with Sony seems to be bearing fruit, as discussed in our CES 2025 highlight coverage here. Order reservations are being now taken on production versions of the Walkman on Four Wheels, the Sony AFEELA.
CES 2025 opened with yet another EV announcement involving Honda. The automaker showed off its Zero Saloon and Zero SUV models, destined for 2026 production and built on the same Marysville Ohio assembly line as the AFEELA. A second, more feature-rich, generation of these models will likely be built in Canada.
Honda Lambotus
“By further advancing the concept model introduced last year at CES 2024, the Honda 0 Saloon prototype was developed in preparation for a market launch scheduled in 2026. While maintaining the exact styling design of the concept model, the prototype model features both a low height, sporty styling that sets the Saloon apart from other EVs at first glance, and an interior space that is more spacious than people can imagine based on the exterior dimensions.”—Honda Press Release
The Zero Saloon looks a bit like a Lambo Gallardo had a baby with a Lotus Europa. However, in profile, it’s obvious the roofline and rear diffuser strategy strictly adhered to the Coanda effect and laminar design flow profiles to minimize aero drag (Fig. 1).
For a Japanese company, this design is a gutsy move, but then so was the Honda Insight back in 1999 (Fig. 2).
The Star Trek TOS doors on the Saloon’s headlights are brilliant, but it leaves question of whether these will survive winter testing. The same goes for whether the rear C-pillar sails design-statement will survive. As any Europa owner can attest, the massive blind spot isn’t tolerable, though it can be argued that the ADAS-equipped vehicle could foresee and prevent blind-spot collisions.
Honda Camarotus
“Based on the Space-Hub concept model unveiled at CES 2024, proposing the new value of EVs as a “space” for people that Honda wants to offer with its future EV models, Honda presented the prototype of a mid-size EV SUV, which will be the first Honda 0 Series model. By applying the “Thin, Light, and Wise” approach to an SUV, the interior space was further increased, and a spacious cabin was achieved with an outstandingly clear and unrestricted field of view and great flexibility.”—Honda Press Release
The Honda 0 SUV has a much shorter wheelbase than the Saloon, a similar Europa-esque D-pillar sail, but the front end looks like the Lotus spent the night with a 69 Z/28 RS Camaro (Fig. 3).
Both models will be jacked to the max with AI and self-driving, and there’s a bit of a sad social statement being made in the video of what the ultimate goals of the (wo)man/machine interaction will be like. Do we really want to go there, feeling lonely as we leave her in the garage for the entire night? Ghosting us if it finds our friends having more data?
In the spirit of brevity, some really deep details on the Zero cars can be found in this video:
Honda and Renesas Announce Their Engagement at CES 2025
“For the next-generation Honda 0 Series models, which will be launched in the late 2020s, Honda will adopt a centralized E&E architecture that combines multiple ECUs, responsible for controlling vehicle systems, into a single, core ECU. The core ECU, which serves as the heart of the SDV, manages various vehicle systems, such as AD/ADAS, powertrain control, and comfort features, all on a single ECU. To achieve this, the ECU requires a SoC that provides higher processing performance than traditional systems, while minimizing any increase in power consumption.
"To fulfill such requirements, Honda and Renesas will realize a system that utilizes multi-die chiplet technology to combine the Renesas generic fifth-generation (Gen 5) R-Car X5 SoC series with an AI accelerator optimized for AI software developed independently by Honda. With this combination, the two companies aim to develop a system that achieves one of the industry’s top class AI performances of 2,000 TOPS (Sparse) with 20 TOPS/W power efficiency.”—Honda Press Release
The full press release with more details can be found here. Stay tuned to Electronic Design for more CES 2025 coverage as Bill Wong and Cabe Atwell send in materials off the show floor while James Morra and Andy Turudic comb the show for interesting announcements.
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