Honda And Renewable Cooperation Technology For Advanced SoC Development For SDV-Based Vehicles

Honda 0 Saloon & SUV which will appear at the CES 2025 exhibition. (Doc. Honda Global)

JAKARTA Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda) and Renesas Electronics Corporation (Renesas) officially signed a high-performance SoC (System-on-Chip) development cooperation agreement for vehicles based on Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV).

This announcement was made at the "CES 2025 Honda Press Conference" which took place at the CES 2025 exhibition in Las Vegas, United States.

The official Renesas broadcast on Thursday, January 9, reported that the SoC, which is being developed, is designed to bring the best AI performance in its class with the processing capability of 2,000 TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second) and power efficiency reaching 20 TOPS/W. This technology is planned to be used in Honda's latest EV model, namely the Honda 0 series, Honda's future vehicle which will be introduced globally in 2026.

Honda is committed to providing personalized mobility experience through the implementation of SDV in the Honda 0 series. Electrical and Electronic (E&E) architectures in this series will use the concept of central architecture, which integrates various ECUs (Electronic Control Units) into the ECU cores. These ECU Cores become the center of control for various vehicle systems, ranging from AD/ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), powertrain control, to convenience features. Therefore, high performance SoCs are needed that are not only able to handle complex processing, but also power efficient.

Renesas, known as a leader in the development of automotive semiconductors, uses multi-die chipset technology to improve SoC's performance through the addition of AI accelerators. This step allows increased AI capabilities while providing customization flexibility.

Through this collaboration, Honda and Renesas developed a state-of-the-art SoC that utilizes 3nm technology from TSMC, a cutting-edge manufacturing process to significantly reduce power consumption. The combination of the fifth-generation SoC R-Car X5 Series of Renesas with the optimized AI accelerator for Honda's AI software allows high power efficiency while supporting AI's computing needs for smart vehicles, such as autonomous features. With chiplet technology, this system can also be easily customized and improved as needed in the future.

This collaboration is a continuation of the long relationship between Honda and Renesas. The signing of this agreement accelerates the application of advanced semiconductor technology and software in the Honda 0 series, allowing Honda to bring faster mobility innovations to its consumers.