TOKYO — A new electric car company that brings together two big names in Japanese business, Honda and Sony, officially kicked off Oct. 13.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Honda says it will build a $3.5 billion joint-venture battery factory in rural southern Ohio and hire 2,200 people to staff it as the company starts to turn the state into its North American electric vehicle hub.

TOKYO — Major South Korean battery maker LG and Japanese automaker Honda are investing $4.4 billion in a joint venture in the United States to produce batteries for Honda electric vehicles in the North American market, the two companies said Aug. 29.

General Motors Co. and Honda Motor Co. will jointly develop affordable electric vehicles for the most popular segments in large global markets, starting with North America in 2027.

Sony Group Corp. and Honda Motor Co. agreed to establish a joint venture this year to start selling an electric vehicle by 2025, both sides said March 4.

Japan’s biggest carmakers joined the widening global corporate pullback from Russia, following the likes of Ford Motor Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp., which have chosen not to do business there after the invasion of Ukraine.

Honda Motor Co. long eschewed big strategic alliances, preferring to go it alone even as many of its carmaking peers banded to improve economies of scale. That strategy is changing now that the Japanese automaker is shifting more aggressively to electric vehicles.

Honda Motor Co. plans to revamp three key midsized vehicles — two sport utilities and a pickup — by giving them beefier looks. It also will play up their off-road capabilities in marketing to appeal to more-traditional truck buyers.

General Motors and Honda have a deal to share vehicle platforms and technology in North America starting next year.

Japanese carmaker Honda said June 9 that it has been hit by a cyberattack that disrupted its business in several countries, though it expects the overall impact to be contained.