What Honda’s EV retreat means for the future of clean tech

Japan’s slow-motion retreat from the car industry’s technological frontier is now impossible to ignore.

Honda’s recent decision to cancel three new battery-electric models for the US market — a massive write-down and refocus on hybrids — is not an isolated corporate mishap; it is a symptom of a deeper national problem. These are the classic hallmarks of late, cautious entry rather than bold experimentation.

A country that once re-engineered the global auto industry now risks watching the next era of mobility – and much of clean technology – being defined elsewhere, most obviously in China.