Honda aims to become the leader in safety and environment

Honda is dreaming big for a cleaner future. 

The Japanese auto maker's CEO, Takahiro Hachigo, has discussed the brand's big plans for the next decade. 

As part of its 2030 Vision, Honda has set itself a rather formidable goal of being the number one in the areas of environment and safety as it strives for both a carbon-free and collision-free society. 

While Honda's electric and autonomous vehicles aren't overly advanced compared to other major car makers, Honda does plan on launching an all-electric car in China in 2018 before it expands globally along with displaying an autonomous concept in the future. 

Honda was one of the first manufacturers to launch a hybrid in Australia, with its ill-fated CR-Z coupe, it has since withdrawn any green-focused vehicles from the local market and instead offers a limited range overseas. 

However, Honda stressed in the CEO's 2030 Vision presentation that it would be strengthening its development of electric vehicles in addition to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which it was one of the first proponents. To help achieve this goal the car maker established an electric vehicle development division within its R&D unit in late 2016 to develop a new electric vehicle from the ground up. Honda hopes two-thirds of its vehicle sales will feature some sort of electrification by 2030.

Another main initiative Honda hopes to develop as part of the 2030 Vision is what it describes as offering freedom of mobility and adding value to daily lives, which is a focus on autonomous driving through the development of robotics and artificial intelligence. 

Honda has recently shown off some of its future robotics and AI ideas at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show with its NeuV driverless car concept. 

In the near term, Honda plans to increase the number of vehicles that feature its sensing technologies, with a plan for all new models offered in Japan to include this as standard equipment and expand its use in other markets. Honda has recently come under fire from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) for not offering driver aids like autonomous emergency braking as standard on most of its new models. 

As well as rolling out driverless car technologies by 2020 the car maker wants to have a level four autonomous vehicles on the road by 2025. 

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