Expanding Portfolio Into Aerial Mobility, Rocketry 

Honda Motor Company recently released its ambitious "2030 Vision", an series of changes and projects geared towards future-proofing the company by integrating its wide range of expertise in combustion, electrics, aeronautics, and robotics into a series of products suited for a rapidly changing economy. 

Central to their new "mobility ecosystem" will be a hybrid gas turbine and electrically powered vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, currently dubbed the Honda eVTOL. Designed for local, city transportation, features a simple, robust structure, decentralized propulsive system, and relatively quiet arrangement of small diameter rotors. Honda notes their break from the competition in relying on hybrid power. Unlike similar aerial mobility aircraft, Honda believes an all-battery, all electric aircraft would face range issues that would hamper its mobility and limit it to intra-city transportation. As a part of their theoretical ecosystem, the eVTOL would be able to take off and land in the middle of a city, without the noise or physical footprint of current small aircraft. The presentation describing the systems also reveals a reservation system that would enable users to book flights and treat the eVTOL like any other rideshare. 

Honda also announced their intent to join the space race, in some fashion, as they accelerate research and development into space technology. One proposal, they shared, came from a group of young engineers when they found the company had everything it needed to create a small, reusable rocket capable of satellite delivery. Reportedly, their body of work in automated driving tech has already paid dividends in the guiding the design’s return to Earth. Most quixotic, however, was a series of proposals about a fuel cell based, renewable energy system on the Moon's surface. Using their previous expertise in hydrogen fuel cell technology, Honda is designing functional life support systems to be used in a lunar base. Additionally, the integration of another 2030 Vision technology, the humanoid Avatar Robot, as a remote-controlled astronaut and virtual reality stand-in for those back on Earth. 

Honda's eVTOL could reach the market just in time to compete against fellow automakers Hyundai, Toyota, and General Motors in the Aerial Mobility segment. Test flights are expected within the next 3 years, with hopes for certification by 2030. 

FMI: www.global.honda.com