本田董事长在年报中反思董事会对重大投资决策参与不足，为EV巨亏后的治理复盘

TOKYO -- Honda Motor's board of directors had too little say in major investment decisions, overly constrained by a "monitoring" type mentality, its board chair said, as the automaker grapples with the fallout from its costly bet on electric vehicles.
Fumiya Kokubu, an outside director who became chairperson of the board of directors in June, said that Honda's governance structure had made it difficult for directors to scrutinize major investment decisions before they were finalized.
"It is difficult for the Board to properly assess what kind of discussions led to the investment," Kokubu, who also serves as executive corporate advisor of trading house Marubeni, said in the company's annual report published on Friday.
His comments follow Honda's net loss of 423.9 billion yen ($2.6 billion) in the fiscal year ended March this year, as the company incurred heavy charges from scaling back its ambitious EV strategy amid weaker-than-expected demand in North America. It marked its first net loss since listing in 1957.
Honda overhauled its governance structure in 2021, transferring greater decision-making authority to executive officers while establishing three committees, each with a majority of outside directors, to strengthen oversight.
The changes were announced shortly before Toshihiro Mibe took over as chief executive that year and embarked on an ambitious push into EVs.
Kokubu said the structure meant major investment decisions were often presented to the board only after they had been made, leaving directors with limited opportunities to scrutinize the reasoning behind them.
The company "began to rely too heavily on a monitoring-type Board of Directors," he said.
Kokubu said he would attend executive council meetings and share details of their discussions with outside directors to strengthen the board's involvement in decision-making. Directors need to "change their current mindset" to serve a more active role, he added.
Under Mibe, Honda embarked on one of the Japanese auto industry's most ambitious electrification strategies, seeking to challenge Chinese rivals that had taken the lead in the global EV market.
In 2024, Honda announced plans to spend 10 trillion yen, or $63 billion, on electrification and software technologies by 2030, while targeting annual production of more than 2 million electric vehicles. The company also set a goal of phasing out sales of combustion-engine cars globally by 2040.
But Honda has since scaled back its EV ambitions as demand in North America fell short of expectations. Honda said in March it was canceling three electric vehicle model launches planned for North America, while its project to build a comprehensive EV value chain in Canada was suspended as well.
It is now shifting its investment focus toward hybrid vehicles, which have enjoyed stronger demand in North America.