TOKYO -- Just five years ago, Honda's CEO, Toshihiro Mibe, was widely hailed as a visionary. He pledged that by 2040, the Japanese automaker -- long celebrated for its mastery of internal-combustion engines -- would spend tens of billions of dollars to phase them out in favor of electric vehicles. The bold shift won applause from Wall Street, then bullish on all things EV, and environmental groups that had criticized rival Japanese automakers for clinging to hybrid and gasoline-powered cars.