is a Japanese

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in

Minato, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is also called Minato City in English. It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Akasaka, Azabu and Shiba wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Minato ward exhibits ...

, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a production of 400 million by the end of 2019, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...

s measured by volume, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year. Honda became the second-largest Japanese automobile manufacturer in 2001. In 2015, Honda was the eighth largest automobile manufacturer in the world. Honda was the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to release a dedicated luxury brand, Acura, in 1986. Aside from their core automobile and motorcycle businesses, Honda also manufactures garden equipment, marine engines, personal watercraft, power generators, and other products. Since 1986, Honda has been involved with artificial intelligence/robotics research and released their ASIMO robot in 2000. They have also ventured into aerospace with the establishment of

GE Honda Aero Engines GE Honda Aero Engines LLC is a joint venture between GE Aviation and Honda Aero based in Cincinnati, Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and terr ...

in 2004 and the Honda HA-420 HondaJet, which began production in 2012. Honda has two joint-ventures in China: Dongfeng Honda and

Guangqi Honda Guangqi Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., also called GAC-Honda, is a Chinese automobile manufacturing joint venture company based in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Co-owned by Honda and GAC Group (''Guangqi''), Guangqi Honda operates two plants that, ...

. In 2013, Honda invested about 5.7% (US$6.8 billion) of its revenues into research and development. Also in 2013, Honda became the first Japanese automaker to be a net exporter from the United States, exporting 108,705 Honda and Acura models, while importing only 88,357.

History

Honda T360 1963 in Honda Collection Hall

Throughout his life, Honda's founder,

Soichiro Honda was a Japanese engineer and industrialist. In 1948, he established Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and oversaw its expansion from a wooden shack manufacturing bicycle motors to a multinational automobile and motorcycle manufacturer. Early years Honda ...

, had an interest in automobiles. He worked as a mechanic at the Art Shokai garage, where he tuned cars and entered them in races. In 1937, with financing from his acquaintance Kato Shichirō, Honda founded

Tōkai Tōkai ( 東海, literally ''East Sea'') in Japanese may refer to: * Tōkai region, a subregion of Chūbu * Tōkai, Ibaraki, a village, also known as "Tokaimura" (Tokai-village) * Tōkai, Aichi, a city * Tōkai University, a private university in T ...

Seiki (Eastern Sea Precision Machine Company) to make

piston rings A piston ring is a metallic split ring that is attached to the outer diameter of a piston in an internal combustion engine or steam engine. The main functions of piston rings in engines are: # Sealing the combustion chamber so that there is mini ...

working out of the Art Shokai garage. After initial failures, Tōkai Seiki won a contract to supply piston rings to

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

, but lost the contract due to the poor quality of their products. After attending engineering school without graduating, and visiting factories around Japan to better understand Toyota's quality control processes known as "

Five whys Five whys (or 5 whys) is an iterative interrogative technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem by repeating ...

", by 1941 Honda was able to mass-produce piston rings acceptable to Toyota, using an automated process that could employ even unskilled wartime laborers.

Tōkai Seiki was a Japanese engineer and industrialist. In 1948, he established Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and oversaw its expansion from a wooden shack manufacturing bicycle motors to a multinational automobile and motorcycle manufacturer. Early years Honda ...

was placed under the control of the

Ministry of Commerce and Industry A Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry or variations is a ministry that is concerned with a nation's trade, industry and commerce. Notable examples are: List *Algeria: Ministry of Industry and ...

(called the Ministry of Munitions after 1943) at the start of World War II, and Soichiro Honda was demoted from president to senior managing director after Toyota took a 40% stake in the company. Honda also aided the war effort by assisting other companies in automating the production of military aircraft propellers. The relationships Honda cultivated with personnel at Toyota,

Nakajima Aircraft Company The was a prominent Japanese aircraft manufacturer and aviation engine manufacturer throughout World War II. It continues as the car and aircraft manufacturer Subaru. History The Nakajima Aircraft company was Japan's first aircraft manufactur ...

and the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

would be instrumental in the postwar period. A US B-29 bomber attack destroyed Tōkai Seiki's Yamashita plant in 1944, and the Itawa plant collapsed on 13 January

1945 Mikawa earthquake The occurred off Aichi prefecture, Japan at 03:38 AM on January 13. As it occurred during World War II, information about the disaster was censored. Efforts at keeping the disaster secret hampered relief efforts and contributed to the high deat ...

. Soichiro Honda sold the salvageable remains of the company to Toyota after the war for ¥450,000 and used the proceeds to found the Honda Technical Research Institute in October 1946. With a staff of 12 men working in a shack, they built and sold improvised

motorized bicycles A motorized bicycle is a bicycle with an attached motor or engine and transmission used either to power the vehicle unassisted, or to assist with pedalling. Since it sometimes retains both pedals and a discrete connected drive for rider-powere ...

, using a supply of 500

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of ...

''50 cc''

Tohatsu is a Japanese company manufacturing and selling outboard motors, pleasure boats, portable fire pumps, small fire trucks, pumps for construction and drainage, and refrigeration units for transportation. It also does real estate property managem ...

war surplus War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...

radio generator engines. When the engines ran out, Honda began building their own copy of the Tohatsu engine, and supplying these to customers to attach to their bicycles. This was the Honda A-Type, nicknamed the Bata Bata for the sound the engine made. In 1949, the Honda Technical Research Institute was liquidated for 1,000,000, or about 5,000 today; these funds were used to incorporate Honda Motor Co., Ltd. At about the same time Honda hired engineer Kihachiro Kawashima, and

Takeo Fujisawa was a Japanese businessman who co-founded Honda Motor Co., Ltd. alongside Soichiro Honda. Fujisawa oversaw the financial side of the company while Honda handled the engineering and product development. Together, they took the company from a small ...

who provided indispensable business and marketing expertise to complement Soichiro Honda's technical bent. The close partnership between Soichiro Honda and Fujisawa lasted until they stepped down together in October 1973. The first complete motorcycle with both the frame and engine made by Honda was the 1949 D-Type, the first Honda to go by the name Dream. In 1961, Honda achieved its first Grand Prix victories and World Championships in the 125cc and 250cc categories. Honda Motor Company grew in a short time to become the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964. The first production automobile from Honda was the T360 mini pick-up truck, which went on sale in August 1963. Powered by a small 356cc straight-4 gasoline engine, it was classified under the cheaper Kei car tax bracket. The second production car from Honda was the S500 sports car, which followed the T360 into production in October 1963. Its chain-driven rear wheels pointed to Honda's motorcycle origins. Over the next few decades, Honda worked to expand its product line, operations and exports to numerous countries around the world. In 1986, Honda introduced the successful Acura brand to the American market in an attempt to gain ground in the

luxury vehicle A luxury car is a car that provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and associated status compared to moderately priced cars. The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and t ...

market. The year 1991 saw the introduction of the

Honda NSX The Honda NSX, marketed in North America as the Acura NSX, is a two-seat, mid-engined coupe sports car manufactured by Honda. The origins of the NSX trace back to 1984, with the HP-X (Honda Pininfarina eXperimental) concept, which was a mid-eng ...

supercar, the first all-aluminum monocoque vehicle that incorporated a

mid-engine In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of ...

V6 with variable-valve timing. In 1990, CEO

Tadashi Kume was a Japanese businessman who was the president and CEO of the Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Career Tadashi Kume joined Honda in 1954, eventually becoming Honda's 3rd president in 1983. He specialized in designing engines, and, along with other engin ...

was succeeded by

Nobuhiko Kawamoto was the CEO of Honda Motor from 1990 to 1998. Biography After graduating from Tohoku University in 1963, he joined the Honda F1 team as a design engineer. After Honda pulled out of F1 after the 1968 season to focus on production vehicles, he retu ...

. Kawamoto was selected over

Shoichiro Irimajiri is a Japanese engineer and businessman. He earned an aeronautical engineering degree from the University of Tokyo and worked for Honda Motor Co., Ltd. for 20 years, overseeing the introduction of its CBX motorcycle, design of their F1 racing e ...

, who oversaw the successful establishment of Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. in

Marysville, Ohio Marysville is a city in and the county seat of Union County, Ohio, United States, approximately 27 miles (44 km) northwest of Columbus. The population was 22,094 at the 2010 census, a 38.59% increase from 2000. Marysville's longtime slo ...

. Irimajiri and Kawamoto shared a friendly rivalry within Honda; owing to health issues, Irimajiri would resign in 1992. Following the death of

and the departure of Irimajiri, Honda found itself quickly being outpaced in product development by other Japanese automakers and was caught off-guard by the truck and

sport utility vehicle A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon defini ...

boom of the 1990s, all which took a toll on the profitability of the company. Japanese media reported in 1992 and 1993 that Honda was at serious risk of an unwanted and hostile takeover by

Mitsubishi Motors is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.Pajero and

Diamante A diamanté (also spelled diamante) is a glittering ornament, such as an artificial jewel (e.g. a rhinestone) or a sequin. Diamante may also refer to: Places Argentina * Diamante, Entre Ríos, a ''municipio'' in Diamante Department * Diamante ...

models. Kawamoto acted quickly to change Honda's corporate culture, rushing through market-driven product development that resulted in recreational vehicles such as the first-generation

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...

and the

CR-V The Honda CR-V (also sold as the Honda Breeze in China since 2019) is a compact crossover SUV manufactured by the Japanese automaker Honda since 1995. The early model was built using the same platform as the Civic. Honda began producing the CR ...

, and a refocusing away from some of the numerous sedans and coupes that were popular with the company's engineers but not with the buying public. The most shocking change to Honda came when Kawamoto ended the company's successful participation in Formula One after the 1992 season, citing costs in light of the takeover threat from Mitsubishi as well as the desire to create a more environmentally friendly company image. The

Honda Aircraft Company Honda Aircraft Company is an aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, responsible for the production of the HondaJet family of aircraft. Originally a secret research project within Honda R&D, Honda Aircraft Company was ...

as established in 2006 as a wholly owned subsidiary to manufacture and sell the

HondaJet The Honda HA-420 HondaJet is a light business jet produced by the Honda Aircraft Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Original concepts of the aircraft started in 1997 and were completed in 1999. It took its maiden flight on D ...

family of aircraft. The first deliveries to customers began in December 2015. On February 23rd, 2015, Honda announced that CEO and President

Takanobu Ito is a Japanese senior business executive at Honda Motor Co. (joined in 1978), who has served as the President, Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer ...

would step down and be replaced by Takahiro Hachigo in June of that year; additional retirements by senior managers and directors were expected. In October 2019, Honda was reported to be in talks with Hitachi to merge the two companies' car parts businesses, creating a components supplier with almost $17 billion in annual sales. In January 2020, Honda announced that it would be withdrawing employees working in the city of

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...

, China due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. On March 23, 2020 due to the global spread of the virus, Honda became the first major automaker with operations in the US to suspend production in its factories. It resumed automobile, engine and transmission production at its US plants on May 11, 2020. Honda and General Motors announced in September 2020 a North American alliance to begin in 2021. According to The Detroit Free Press, "The proposed alliance will include sharing a range of vehicles, to be sold under each company’s distinct brands, as well as cooperation in purchasing, research and development, and connected services." In March 2022, Honda announced it would develop and build electric vehicles in a joint venture with

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

. The latter is set to provide its imaging, sensing, network and other technologies while Honda would be responsible for the car manufacturing processes. The venture is set to fully launch later in 2022 with the release of first cars scheduled for 2025.

Senior leadership

* ''Chairman:'' Toshiaki Mikoshiba (since April 2019) * ''President and Chief Executive'': Toshihiro Mibe (since April 2021)

Corporate profile and divisions

Honda is headquartered in

, Japan. Their shares trade on the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed ...

and the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

, as well as exchanges in Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto,

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since anc ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, Paris, and Switzerland. The company has assembly plants around the globe. These plants are located in China, the United States, Pakistan, Canada, England, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, México, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Taiwan, Perú and Argentina. As of July 2010, 89% of Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the United States were built in North American plants, up from 82.2% a year earlier. This shields profits from the yen's advance to a 15-year high against the dollar.

American Honda Motor Company The American Honda Motor Company, Inc. (sometimes abbreviated as AHM) is the North American subsidiary of the Honda Motor Company. It was founded in 1959. The company combines product sales, service and coordinating functions of Honda in North ...

is based in

Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay region of the metropolitan area. Torrance has of beachfront on the Pacific O ...

Honda Racing Corporation Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) is a division of the Honda Motor Company formed in 1982. The company combines participation in motorcycle races throughout the world with the development of racing machines. Its racing activities are an important ...

(HRC) is Honda's motorcycle racing division.

Honda Canada Inc. Honda Canada Inc. is the Canadian division of the Honda Motor Company. Founded in 1969, Honda has been building cars in Canada since 1986 in Alliston, Ontario and head office in Markham, Ontario. Sales Motorcycles were the first Honda product ...

is headquartered in

Markham, Ontario Markham () is a city in the Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest ...

, it was originally planned to be located in Richmond Hill, Ontario, but delays led them to look elsewhere. Their manufacturing division,

Honda of Canada Manufacturing Honda of Canada Manufacturing (french: Honda Canada Inc.) is located in Alliston, Ontario and is the automobile manufacturing division of Honda Canada Inc. Manufacturing The Honda of Canada Manufacturing (HCM) plants in Alliston have a land area ...

, is based in

Alliston, Ontario Alliston is a settlement in Simcoe County in the Canadian province of Ontario. It has been part of the Town of New Tecumseth since the 1991 amalgamation of Alliston and nearby villages of Beeton, Tottenham, and the Township of Tecumseth. The p ...

. Honda has also created joint ventures around the world, such as Honda Siel Cars and

Hero Honda Motorcycles A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''hero ...

in India, Guangzhou Honda and Dongfeng Honda in China, Boon Siew Honda in Malaysia and Honda Atlas in Pakistan. The company also runs a business innovation initiative called Honda Xcelerator, in order to build relationships with innovators, partner with Silicon Valley startups and entrepreneurs, and help other companies work on prototypes. Xcelerator had worked with reportedly 40 companies as of January 2019. Xcelerator and a developer studio are part of the Honda Innovations group, formed in Spring 2017 and based in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...

. Following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, Honda announced plans to halve production at its UK plants. The decision was made to put staff at the Swindon plant on a 2-day week until the end of May as the manufacturer struggled to source supplies from Japan. It's thought around 22,500 cars were produced during this period. For the fiscal year 2018, Honda reported earnings of US$9.534 billion, with an annual revenue of US$138.250 billion, an increase of 6.2% over the previous fiscal cycle. Honda's shares traded at over $32 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US$50.4 billion in October 2018. Honda's Net Sales and Other Operating Revenue by Geographical Regions in 2007

Products

Automobiles

2021 Honda Accord Sport (facelift), front 11

2022 Honda Civic LX, Front Right, 06-20-2021

2020 Honda CR-V EX-L (facelift), front 11

Honda's automotive manufacturing ambitions can be traced back to 1963, with the

Honda T360 The T360 is a pickup truck from Honda. Introduced in June 1963, it was Honda's first production automobile, beating the S500 Sports by four months. The T360 used a 356 cc AK250E series DOHC inline-four engine also found in the Honda S360 ro ...

, a

Kei truck A kei truck, kei-class truck, or Japanese mini truck is a mini truck, a tiny but practical pickup truck available in rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive versions, built to satisfy the Japanese '' keijidōsha'' (軽自動車, "light vehicle") st ...

built for the Japanese market. This was followed by the two-door roadster, the

Honda S500 The S500 was the second production car from Honda (and its first passenger automobile), released in 1963, following the T360 truck into production by four months. It was a larger-displacement variant of the S360 roadster which, though develope ...

also introduced in 1963. In 1965, Honda built a two-door commercial delivery van, named the

Honda L700 The L700 is a commercial station wagon from Honda. Produced for only eleven months beginning in October 1965, it shared the S600 roadster's mechanicals and used a bored out version of that car's high-tech inline-four engine. At 687 cc, the ...

. Honda's first four-door sedan was not the

Honda Accord The , also known as the in Japan and China for certain generations, is a series of cars manufactured by Honda since 1976, best known for its four-door sedan variant, which has been one of the best-selling cars in the United States since 1989. ...

, but the air-cooled, four-cylinder, gasoline-powered

Honda 1300 The Honda 1300 is an automobile which was produced by Japanese manufacturer Honda from 1969 to 1972. The largest car ever manufactured by the company to that point, the front wheel drive 1300 was released as a sedan and coupé intended to compete ...

which was introduced in 1969. The Civic was a hatchback that gained wide popularity internationally, but it wasn't the first two-door hatchback built by Honda. That was the

Honda N360 The Honda N360 is a small front-engine, front-wheel drive, two-door, four-passenger car manufactured and marketed by Honda from March 1967 through 1970 in Japan's highly regulated kei class — as both a two-door sedan and three-door wagon. ...

, a Kei car that was adapted for international sale as the N600. The Civic, which appeared in 1972 and replaced the N600 also had a smaller sibling that replaced the air-cooled N360, called the

Honda Life The Honda Life is an automobile nameplate that was used on various kei car/city cars produced by Honda: passenger cars, microvans, and kei trucks. The first series of the nameplate was built between 1971 and 1974, with the nameplate revived in 1 ...

, which was water-cooled. The Honda Life represented Honda's efforts in competing in the ''kei'' car segment, offering sedan, delivery van and small pick-up platforms on a shared chassis. The Life StepVan had a novel approach that, while not initially a commercial success, appeared to be an influence to vehicles with the front passengers sitting behind the engine, a large cargo area with a flat roof and a liftgate installed in back, and utilizing a transversely installed engine with a front-wheel-drive powertrain. As Honda entered into automobile manufacturing in the late 1960s where Japanese manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan had been making cars since before WWII, Honda instilled a sense of doing things a little differently than its Japanese competitors. Its mainstay products like the Accord and Civic (with the exception of its USA-market 1993–97 Passport which was part of a vehicle exchange program with Isuzu (part of the Subaru-Isuzu joint venture)) have always employed

Front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...

powertrain implementation, which is currently a long-held Honda tradition. Honda also installed new technologies into their products, first as optional equipment, then later standard, like

anti-lock brakes An anti-lock braking system (ABS) is a automobile safety, safety anti-Skid (automobile), skid Brake, braking system used on aircraft and on land motor vehicle, vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses. ABS operates by preventing t ...

, speed-sensitive power steering, and

multi-port fuel injection Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of an injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines. All comp ...

in the early 1980s. This desire to be the first to try new approaches is evident with the creation of the first Japanese luxury chain Acura, and was also evident with the all-aluminum, mid-engined sports car, the

, which also introduced

variable valve timing In internal combustion engines, variable valve timing (VVT) is the process of altering the timing of a valve lift event, and is often used to improve performance, fuel economy or emissions. It is increasingly being used in combination with var ...

technology, which Honda calls

VTEC VTEC (Variable Valve Timing & Lift Electronic Control) is a system developed by Honda to improve the volumetric efficiency of a four-stroke internal combustion engine, resulting in higher performance at high RPM, and lower fuel consumption at low ...

. The Civic family is a line of

compact car Compact car is a vehicle size class — predominantly used in North America — that sits between subcompact cars and mid-size cars. "Small family car" is a British term and a part of the C-segment in the European car classification. However, ...

s developed and manufactured by Honda. In North America, the Civic is the second-longest continuously running nameplate from a Japanese manufacturer; only its perennial rival, the Toyota Corolla, introduced in 1968, has been in production longer. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude, comprised Honda's vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded. Having gone through several generational changes, the Civic has become larger and more upmarket, and it currently slots between the Fit and Accord. Honda's first

hybrid electric vehicle A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that combines a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) system with an electric propulsion system (hybrid vehicle drivetrain). The presence of the electric powertrain is intended ...

was the 1999

Insight Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intui ...

. The Civic was first offered as a hybrid in 2001, and the Accord followed in 2004. In 2008, the company launched the

Clarity Clarity may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Clarity, a magic spell in the online game ''EverQuest'' * Clarity, a fictional drug from the film '' Minority Report'' Music Albums * ''Clarity'' (Jimmy Eat World album) ...

, a

fuel cell car A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is an electric vehicle that uses a fuel cell, sometimes in combination with a small battery or supercapacitor, to power its onboard electric motor. Fuel cells in vehicles generate e ...

. In 2008, Honda increased global production to meet the demand for small cars and hybrids in the U.S. and emerging markets. The company shuffled U.S. production to keep factories busy and boost car output while building fewer

minivan Minivan (sometimes called simply as van) is a North American car classification for vehicles designed to transport passengers in the rear seating row(s), with reconfigurable seats in two or three rows. The equivalent classification in Europe is ...

s and

s as

light truck Light truck or light-duty truck is a US classification for vehicles with a gross vehicle weight up to and a payload capacity up to 4,000 pounds (1,815 kg). Similar goods vehicle classes in the European Union, Canada, Australia, and New Zeala ...

sales fell. Its first entrance into the pickup segment, the light-duty Ridgeline, won Truck of the Year from ''

Motor Trend ''MotorTrend'' is an American automobile magazine. It first appeared in September 1949, and designated the first Car of the Year, also in 1949. Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles published ''MotorTrend'' until 1998, when it was sold to ...

'' magazine in 2006. Also in 2006, the redesigned Civic won

Car of the Year Car of the Year (COTY) is a common abbreviation for numerous automotive awards. The "Car of the Year" phrase is considered to have been introduced by ''Motor Trend'' magazine in 1949 when the new publication named Cadillac as Motor Trend Car of the ...

from the magazine, giving Honda a rare double win of Motor Trend honors. It is reported that Honda plans to increase hybrid sales in Japan to more than 20% of its total sales in the fiscal year 2011, from 14.8% in the previous year. Five of

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...

's top ten most fuel-efficient cars from 1984 to 2010 come from Honda, more than any other automakers. The five models are: 2000–2006 Honda Insight ( combined), 1986–1987 Honda Civic Coupe HF ( combined), 1994–1995 Honda Civic hatchback VX ( combined), 2006– Honda Civic Hybrid ( combined), and 2010– Honda Insight ( combined). The

ACEEE The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization. Founded in 1980, ACEEE's mission is to act as a catalyst to advance energy efficiency policies, programs, technologies, investments, and behav ...

has also rated the Civic GX as the greenest car in America for seven consecutive years. Honda currently builds vehicles in factories located in Japan, the United States of America, Canada, China, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

Motorcycles

Honda is the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan and has been since it started production in 1955. At its peak in 1982, Honda manufactured almost three million motorcycles annually. By 2006, this figure had been reduced to around 550,000 but was still higher than its three domestic competitors. In 2017, India became the largest motorcycle market for Honda. In India, Honda is leading in the scooters segment, with 59% market share. During the 1960s when it was a small manufacturer, Honda broke out of the Japanese motorcycle market and began exporting to the United States. Working with the advertising agency

Grey Advertising Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency with headquarters in New York City, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities. It is organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East & Africa, A ...

, Honda created an innovative marketing campaign, using the slogan " You meet the nicest people on a Honda." In contrast to the prevailing negative stereotypes of motorcyclists in America as tough, antisocial rebels, this campaign suggested that Honda motorcycles were made for the everyman. The campaign was hugely successful; the ads ran for three years, and by the end of 1963 alone, Honda had sold 90,000 motorcycles. Taking Honda's story as an archetype of the smaller manufacturer entering a new market already occupied by highly dominant competitors, the story of their market entry, and their subsequent huge success in the U.S. and around the world has been the subject of some academic controversy. Competing explanations have been advanced to explain Honda's strategy and the reasons for their success. The first of these explanations was put forward when, in 1975, the

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by re ...

(BCG) was commissioned by the UK government to write a report explaining why and how the British motorcycle industry had been out-competed by its Japanese competitors. The report concluded that the Japanese firms, including Honda, had sought a very high scale of production (they had made a large number of motorbikes) in order to benefit from

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...

and

learning curve A learning curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between how proficient people are at a task and the amount of experience they have. Proficiency (measured on the vertical axis) usually increases with increased experience (the ...

effects. It blamed the decline of the British motorcycle industry on the failure of British managers to invest enough in their businesses to profit from economies of scale and

scope Scope or scopes may refer to: People with the surname * Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer * John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution Arts, media, and entertainment * Cinem ...

The second explanation was offered in 1984 by Richard Pascale, who had interviewed the Honda executives responsible for the firm's entry into the U.S. market. As opposed to the tightly focused strategy of low cost and high scale that BCG accredited to Honda, Pascale found that their entry into the U.S. market was a story of "miscalculation, serendipity, and organizational learning" – in other words, Honda's success was due to the adaptability and hard work of its staff, rather than any long-term strategy. For example, Honda's initial plan on entering the US market was to compete in large motorcycles, around 300cc. Honda's motorcycles in this class suffered performance and reliability problems when ridden the relatively long distances of the US highways. When the team found that the scooters they were using to get themselves around their U.S. base of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

attracted positive interest from consumers that they fell back on selling the Super Cub instead. The most recent school of thought on Honda's strategy was put forward by

Gary Hamel Gary P. Hamel (born 1954) is an American management consultant. He is a founder of Strategos, an international management consulting firm based in Chicago. Biography Hamel graduated from Andrews University in 1975, and from Ross School of Bus ...

and C. K. Prahalad in 1989. Creating the concept of core competencies with Honda as an example, they argued that Honda's success was due to its focus on leadership in the technology of internal combustion engines. For example, the high power-to-weight ratio engines Honda produced for its racing bikes provided technology and expertise which was transferable into mopeds. Honda's entry into the U.S. motorcycle market during the 1960s is used as a

case study A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular fi ...

for teaching introductory strategy at business schools worldwide.

ATVs

Honda builds utility ATVs under models Recon, Rubicon, Rancher, Foreman and Rincon. Honda also builds sports ATVs under the models TRX 90X, TRX 250X, TRX 400x, TRX 450R and TRX 700. Honda Power EU70is Generator

Power equipment

Power equipment production started in 1953 with H-type engine (prior to motorcycles). Honda power equipment reached record sales in 2007 with 6.4 million units sold annually. By 2010 (

Fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

ended 31 March) this figure had decreased to 4.7 million units. Cumulative production of power products has exceeded 85 million units annually (as of September 2008). Honda power equipment includes:

Engines

Honda Reflections, Lake George, CA 9-16 (29800608053)

Honda engines powered the entire 33-car starting field of the

2010 Indianapolis 500 The 94th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 30, 2010. It was the 15th Indy 500 sanctioned by the Indy Racing League, and was the premier event of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season. T ...

and for the fifth consecutive race, there were no engine-related retirements during the running of the Memorial Day Classic. In the 1980s Honda developed the

GY6 engine The GY6 engine design is a four-stroke single-cylinder in a near horizontal orientation that is used on a number of small motorcycles or scooters made in Taiwan, China, and other southeast Asian countries. It has since become a generic technology ...

for use in motor scooters. Although no longer manufactured by Honda, it's still commonly used in many Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese light vehicles. Honda, despite being known as an engine company, has never built a

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

for passenger vehicles. In the late 1990s, the company resisted considerable pressure from its American dealers for a V8 engine (which would have seen use in top-of-the-line Honda SUVs and Acuras), with American Honda reportedly sending one dealer a shipment of V8 beverages to silence them. Honda considered starting V8 production in the mid-2000s for larger Acura sedans, a new version of the high-end NSX sports car (which previously used DOHC V6 engines with VTEC to achieve its high power output) and possible future ventures into the American full-size truck and SUV segment for both the Acura and Honda brands, but this was canceled in late 2008, with Honda citing environmental and worldwide economic conditions as reasons for the termination of this project.

Robots

ASIMO is part of Honda's Research & Development robotics program. It's the eleventh in a line of successive builds starting in 1986 with

Honda E0 The E series was a collection of successive humanoid robots created by the Honda Motor Company between the years of 1986 and 1993. These robots were only experimental, but later evolved into the Honda P series, with Honda eventually amassing the kno ...

moving through the ensuing Honda E series and the Honda P series. Weighing 54 kilograms and standing 130 centimeters tall, ASIMO resembles a small astronaut wearing a backpack, and can walk on

two feet Zachary William "Bill" Dess, (born June 21, 1993), known by his stage name Two Feet, is an American singer, songwriter, and producer from New York City. He attended Tenafly High School in Tenafly, New Jersey. Dess used to play locally in jazz a ...

in a manner resembling human

locomotion Locomotion means the act or ability of something to transport or move itself from place to place. Locomotion may refer to: Motion * Motion (physics) * Robot locomotion, of man-made devices By environment * Aquatic locomotion * Flight * Locomo ...

, at up to . ASIMO is the world's only humanoid robot able to ascend and descend stairs independently. However, human motions such as climbing stairs are difficult to mimic with a machine, which ASIMO has demonstrated by taking two plunges off a staircase. Honda's robot ASIMO (see below) as an R&D project brings together expertise to create a robot that walks, dances and navigates steps. 2010 marks the year Honda developed a machine capable of reading a user's brainwaves to move ASIMO. The system uses a helmet covered with electroencephalography and

near-infrared spectroscopy Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a spectroscopic method that uses the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum (from 780 nm to 2500 nm). Typical applications include medical and physiological diagnostics and research inc ...

sensors that monitor electrical brainwaves and cerebral blood flow signals that alter slightly during the human thought process. The user thinks of one of the limited number of gestures it wants from the robot, which has been fitted with a Brain-Machine Interface.

Aircraft

Honda has also pioneered new technology in its HA-420 HondaJet, manufactured by its subsidiary

, which allows new levels of reduced drag, increased aerodynamics and fuel efficiency thus reducing operating costs.

Mountain bikes

Honda has also built a downhill racing bicycle known as the Honda RN-01. It is not available for sale to the public. The bike has a

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

, which replaces the standard

derailleur Shimano 600 front derailleur (1980) A derailleur is a variable-ratio bicycle gearing system consisting of a chain, multiple sprockets of different sizes, and a mechanism to move the chain from one sprocket to another. Modern front and rear d ...

found on most bikes. Honda has hired several people to pilot the bike, among them

Greg Minnaar Greg Minnaar (born 13 November 1981) is a South African World Champion mountain bike racer competing in downhill cycling. He has won 4 World Championships, 3 World Cup Overall’s and has the most world cup wins ever, with 23 career victories ...

. The team is known as Team G Cross Honda.

Former products

Solar cells

Honda's solar cell subsidiary company Honda Soltec (Headquarters: Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto; President and CEO: Akio Kazusa) started sales throughout Japan of

thin-film solar cells A thin-film solar cell is a second generation solar cell that is made by depositing one or more thin layers, or thin film (TF) of photovoltaic material on a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are commercially use ...

for public and industrial use on October 24th, 2008, after selling solar cells for residential use in October 2007. Honda announced in the end of October 2013 that Honda Soltec would cease business operations in the Spring of 2014 except for support for existing customers and the subsidiary would be dissolved.

Motorsports

Honda has been active in motorsports, like

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

, MotoGP and others.

Automobiles

Honda entered

for the first time in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

, just one year after starting the production of road cars, making both engine and chassis. Honda achieved their first victory at the

1965 Mexican Grand Prix The 1965 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Ciudad Deportiva Magdalena Mixhuca in Mexico City on October 24, 1965. It was race 10 of 10 in both the 1965 World Championship of Drivers and the 1965 International Cup for Formul ...

, and another win at the

1967 Italian Grand Prix The 1967 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza on 10 September 1967. It was race 9 of 11 in both the 1967 World Championship of Drivers and the 1967 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturer ...

, before they withdrew after the 1968 season. They returned to the sport in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

as an engine manufacturer, remaining until 1992. This period saw Honda dominate Grand Prix racing, as between

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

they won five consecutive Drivers' Championships with

Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (, born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian retired racing driver and businessman. Since his retirement, Piquet, a three-time World Champion, has been ranked among the greatest Formula One (F1) drivers in various motorspo ...

Ayrton Senna Ayrton Senna da Silva (; 21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in , , and . Senna is one of three Formula One drivers from Brazil to win the World Championship and ...

and

Alain Prost Alain Marie Pascal Prost (; born 24 February 1955) is a French retired racing driver and Formula One team owner. A four-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion, from 1987 until 2001 he held the record for most Grand Prix victories until Micha ...

, and six Constructors' titles with Williams and McLaren. A third stint from

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, initially as engine maker and later also as team owner, yielded 17 podiums, including one win, and second place in the 2004 constructors' standings. They returned as a power unit supplier for the second year of the hybrid era in 2015 and initially struggled, but intense development saw them become race winners again by

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, and in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

they won the World Driver's Championship with Max Verstappen and

Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing, also simply known as Red Bull or RBR and currently competing as Oracle Red Bull Racing, is a Formula One racing team, racing under an Austrian licence and based in the United Kingdom. It is one of two Formula One teams owned ...

. Honda stopped formally supplying Formula One engines after 2021 to focus its resources on

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

technologies, but has extended power unit support for Red Bull Powertrains (RBPT) until 2025. Honda debuted in the

CART IndyCar World Series Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) was a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 1979 to 2003. It sanctioned the PPG Indy Car World Series from 1979 until dissolving after the 2003 season. CART was founded i ...

as an engine supplier in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, and the company won six consecutive Drivers' Championships and four Manufacturers' Championships between 1996 and 2001. In 2003, Honda transferred its effort to the IRL IndyCar Series. In 2004, Honda won the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

for the first time and claimed the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships, a feat which it repeated in 2005. From 2006 to 2011, Honda was the series' lone manufacturer, before manufacturer competition returned for

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

. Since 2012, Honda's turbocharged V6 engines have won the Indianapolis 500 several times as well as claimed multiple Drivers' and Manufacturers' titles. In the Japanese Super Formula Championship, Honda-powered cars have won the championship numerous times since 1981, with their title tally in the double digits. In

Formula Two Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009– 2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name ...

, Honda engines dominated the premier series in 1966 and scored multiple titles in the early 1980s. In

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...

, Honda won the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

in the GT2 class, and in 2010 and

they won in the LMP2 category. Honda made their factory debut in the

Super GT Series Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

(previously known as the

All-Japan GT Championship Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

) in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, and in

they won their first championships. Since then, they have won several further titles, uniquely with both mid- and front-engined cars. Through their Acura and HPD divisions, Honda has also competed in

sports prototype A sports prototype, sometimes referred to as simply a prototype, is a type of race car that is used in the highest-level categories of sports car racing. These purpose-built racing cars, unlike street-legal and production-based racing cars, are n ...

racing, beginning with the Spice-Acura prototypes that won the IMSA GT Lights championship in

, 1992 and

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

. Acura joined the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...

in 2007 and won the 12 Hours of Sebring in class on their debut, before winning the championship in both the LMP1 and LMP2 classes in 2009. The cars were rebranded as HPDs for 2010, after which they won multiple titles in the ALMS and also won the FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class. Acura returned to prototype racing in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

in the DPi class of the

IMSA SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMS ...

, winning championship titles in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

as well as the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layo ...

overall in

and

. Honda's GT3 car won both the IMSA GTD and Super GT GT300 titles. During the

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived vehicles intended for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles ...

era of the

Japanese Touring Car Championship The Japanese Touring Car Championship (abbr: 1985–1993: JTC, 1994–1998: JTCC, officially known as All Japan Touring Car Championship, ja, 全日本ツーリングカー選手権, link=no), was a former touring car racing series held in Japan. ...

, Honda won seven manufacturers' titles and six drivers' titles in the sub-1,600 cc division between 1986 and

. The following

Super Touring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

era of

touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not mov ...

saw Honda win the Japanese and

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

championships in 1996 and 1997, while in Europe Honda's Super Touring cars claimed over 40 wins across the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

and

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

series. After the collapse of the Super Touring regulations in the early 2000s, Honda remained involved in the British Touring Car Championship, where their cars would win multiple championships in the mid-2000s and throughout the 2010s. Honda entered the

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sin ...

in late

, and in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

they won the Manufacturers' World Championship. Honda's TCR car won the global TCR Model of the Year award in 2019 and 2020.

Motorcycles

(HRC) was formed in 1982. The company combines participation in motorcycle races throughout the world with the development of high-potential racing machines. Its racing activities are an important source for the creation of leading-edge technologies used in the development of Honda motorcycles. HRC also contributes to the advancement of motorcycle sports through a range of activities that include sales of production racing motorcycles, support for satellite teams, and rider education programs. Soichiro Honda, being a race driver himself, could not stay out of international motorsport. In 1959, Honda entered five motorcycles into the

Isle of Man TT The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May/June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907. The event is often called one of the most dangerous racing events in the world ...

race, the most prestigious motorcycle race in the world. While always having powerful engines, it took until 1961 for Honda to tune their chassis well enough to allow

Mike Hailwood Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood, (2 April 1940 – 23 March 1981) was a British professional motorcycle racer and racing driver. He is regarded by many as one of the greatest racers of all time. He competed in the Grand Prix motorcycl ...

to claim their first

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

victories in the 125 and 250 cc classes. Hailwood would later pick up their first Senior TT wins in 1966 and

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

. Honda's race bikes were known for their "sleek & stylish design" and exotic engine configurations, such as the 5-cylinder, 22,000 rpm, 125 cc bike and their 6-cylinder 250 cc and 297 cc bikes. In 1979, Honda returned to Grand Prix motorcycle racing with the

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

-framed, four-stroke

NR500 NR500 was a racing motorcycle developed by Honda HRC in 1979 to compete in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. "NR" stands for "New Racing". Model history The motivation behind the NR500 was company founder Soichiro Honda's desire to compete using ...

. The

FIM FIM may refer to: Organizations and companies * Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the International Motorcycling Federation * Flint Institute of Music, in Michigan, United States * Fox Interactive Media, now News Corp. Digital Media * ...

rules limited engines to four cylinders, so the NR500 had non-circular, 'race-track', cylinders, each with 8 valves and two connecting rods, in order to provide sufficient valve area to compete with the dominant

racers. Unfortunately, it seemed Honda tried to accomplish too much at one time and the experiment failed. For the 1982 season, Honda debuted its first two-stroke race bike, the NS500 and in , Honda won their first 500 cc

World Championship with

Freddie Spencer Frederick Burdette Spencer (born December 20, 1961), sometimes known by the nickname Fast Freddie, is an American former world champion motorcycle racer. Spencer is regarded as one of the greatest motorcycle racers of the early 1980s. Motorcycle ...

. Since then, Honda has become a dominant marque in motorcycle Grand Prix racing, winning a plethora of top-level titles with riders such as

Mick Doohan Michael Sydney Doohan (born 4 June 1965) is an Australian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racing World Champion, who won five consecutive 500 cc World Championships. Biography Originally from the Gold Coast, Queensland, Doohan attended ...

and

Valentino Rossi Valentino Rossi (; ; born 16 February 1979) is an Italian former professional motorcycle road racer and nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Champion. Nicknamed ''The Doctor'', he is widely considered to be one of the greatest motorcyc ...

. Honda also head the number of wins at the

having notched up 227 victories in the solo classes and

Sidecar TT The Sidecar TT is a motorcycle-with-sidecar road race competition held over two legs which takes place during the Isle of Man TT festival, an annual event at the end of May and beginning of June. Between 1954 and 1976 this race was part of the Gr ...

, including Ian Hutchinson's clean sweep at the 2010 races. The outright lap record on the Snaefell Mountain Course was held by Honda, set at the 2015 TT by John McGuinness at an average speed of on a

Honda CBR1000RR The Honda CBR1000RR, marketed in some countries as the "Fireblade" (capitalized as FireBlade until the 2000s), is a liquid-cooled inline four-cylinder superbike, introduced by Honda in 2004 as the 7th generation of the CBR series of motorcycles ...

, bettered the next year by

Michael Dunlop Michael Dunlop (born 10 April 1989) is a Northern Irish professional motorcycle racer. Part of a motorcycle racing dynasty, Michael is the brother of the late William Dunlop, son of Robert and nephew of former World Champion Joey Dunlop. He ...

on a BMW S1000RR at . In the

Motocross World Championship FIM Motocross World Championship is the premier championship of motocross racing, organized by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), divided into two distinct classes: MXGP and MX2. Race duration is 30 minutes plus two laps per ...

, Honda has claimed six world championships. In the

World Enduro Championship The FIM Enduro World Championship, formerly known as the World Enduro Championship, is the world championship series for enduro, a popular form of off-road motorcycle sport. The championship currently features three classes (E1, E2 and E3), along ...

, Honda has captured eight titles, most recently with

Stefan Merriman Stefan William Merriman (born 24 March 1973 in Tauranga, New Zealand) is a former professional motorcycle trials and enduro rider. He won the World Enduro Championship in 2000 (250cc), 2001 (400cc), 2003 (250cc), and 2004 (Enduro 1). Career Me ...

in 2003 and with

Mika Ahola Mika Ahola (13 December 1974 – 15 January 2012) was a Finnish enduro rider and a five-time world champion. He was also a seven-time winner of the International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) World Trophy with Team Finland, and was the fastest overall in ...

from 2007 to 2010. In

motorcycle trials Motorcycle trials, also known as observed trials, often called simply trial/s (with or without the plural "s"), is a non-speed event on specialized motorcycles. The sport is most popular in the United Kingdom and Spain, though there are participan ...

, Honda has claimed three world championships with Belgian rider Eddy Lejeune.

Electric and alternative fuel vehicles

Compressed natural gas

The

Honda Civic GX The Honda Civic GX is the only car factory-built to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) in the United States available to non-fleet customers. The GX was based on the Honda Civic and available for fleet sales in all 50 states. It was previou ...

was for a long time the only purpose-built

natural gas vehicle A natural gas vehicle (NGV) is an alternative fuel vehicle that uses compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG). Natural gas vehicles should not be confused with autogas vehicles powered by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), ma ...

(NGV) commercially available in some parts of the U.S. The Honda Civic GX first appeared in 1998 as a factory-modified Civic LX that had been designed to run exclusively on

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...

. The car looks and drives just like a contemporary Honda Civic LX, but does not run on gasoline. In 2001, the Civic GX was rated the cleanest-burning internal combustion engine in the world by the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon pro ...

(EPA). First leased to the City of Los Angeles, in 2005, Honda started offering the GX directly to the public through factory trained dealers certified to service the GX. Before that, only fleets were eligible to purchase a new Civic GX. In 2006, the Civic GX was released in New York, making it the second state where the consumer is able to buy the car. In June 2015, Honda announced its decision to phase out the commercialization of natural-gas powered vehicles to focus on the development of a new generation of electrified vehicles such as hybrids,

plug-in electric car A plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) is any road vehicle that can utilize an external source of electricity (such as a wall socket that connects to the power grid) to store electrical power within its onboard rechargeable battery packs, which th ...

s and hydrogen-powered

fuel cell vehicle A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is an electric vehicle that uses a fuel cell, sometimes in combination with a small battery or supercapacitor, to power its onboard electric motor. Fuel cells in vehicles generate e ...

s. Since 2008, Honda has sold about 16,000 natural-gas vehicles, mainly to taxi and commercial fleets. Honda Civic Clean Models USA & BRA

Flexible-fuel

Honda's Brazilian subsidiary launched

flexible-fuel A flexible-fuel vehicle (FFV) or dual-fuel vehicle (colloquially called a flex-fuel vehicle) is an alternative fuel vehicle with an internal combustion engine designed to run on more than one fuel, usually gasoline blended with either ethanol or ...

versions for the Honda Civic and

Honda Fit The Honda Fit (Japanese: ホンダ・フィット, Hepburn: ''Honda Fitto'') or Honda Jazz is a small car manufactured and marketed by Honda since 2001 and now in its fourth generation. It has a five-door hatchback body style and is considered ...

in late 2006. As other Brazilian flex-fuel vehicles, these models run on any blend of

hydrous In chemistry, a hydrate is a substance that contains water or its constituent elements. The chemical state of the water varies widely between different classes of hydrates, some of which were so labeled before their chemical structure was underst ...

ethanol ( E100) and E20-E25 gasoline. Initially, and in order to test the market preferences, the carmaker decided to produce a limited share of the vehicles with flex-fuel engines, 33 percent of the Civic production and 28 percent of the Fit models. Also, the sale price for the flex-fuel version was higher than the respective gasoline versions, around US$1,000 premium for the Civic, and US$650 for the Fit, despite the fact that all other flex-fuel vehicles sold in Brazil had the same tag price as their gasoline versions. In July 2009, Honda launched in the Brazilian market its third flexible-fuel car, the

Honda City The is a subcompact car which has been produced by the Japanese manufacturer Honda since 1981. The City was originally a 3-door hatchback/2-door convertible for the Japanese, European and Australasian markets. The 3-door City was retired in 199 ...

. During the last two months of 2006, both flex-fuel models sold 2,427 cars against 8,546 gasoline-powered automobiles, ''See Table 08 for flex-fuel sales and Table 07 for gasoline sales''. jumping to 41,990 flex-fuel cars in 2007, ''See Table 08''. and reaching 93,361 in 2008. ''See Table 08''. Due to the success of the flex versions, by early 2009 a hundred percent of Honda's automobile production for the Brazilian market is now flexible-fuel, and only a small percentage of gasoline version is produced in Brazil for exports. ''Up to February 2009. See "Produção por Tipo, Empresa e Combustível " Tables 6 (gasoline) and 7 (flex-fuel). All gasoline vehicles were exported (see Table 01 Exportação de Autoveículos por Empresa, Tipo e Modelo – 2009)''. In March 2009, Honda launched in the Brazilian market the first flex-fuel motorcycle in the world. Produced by its Brazilian subsidiary Moto Honda da Amazônia, the CG 150 Titan Mix is sold for around US$2,700.

Hybrid electric

In late 1999, Honda launched the first commercial

hybrid electric car Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

sold in the U.S. market, the

Honda Insight The is a hybrid electric vehicle that is manufactured and marketed by Honda. Its first generation was a two-door, two passenger liftback (1999–2006) and in its second generation was a four-door, five passenger liftback (2009–2014). In its ...

, just one month before the introduction of the

Toyota Prius The is a car built by Toyota which has a hybrid drivetrain, combining an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Initially offered as a four-door sedan, it has been produced only as a five-door liftback since 2003. In 2007, ...

, and initially sold for US$20,000. The first-generation Insight was produced from 2000 to 2006 and had a fuel economy of for the EPA's highway rating, the most fuel-efficient mass-produced car at the time. Total global sales for the Insight amounted to only around 18,000 vehicles. Cumulative global sales reached 100,000 hybrids in 2005 and 200,000 in 2007. Honda introduced the second-generation Insight in Japan in February 2009, and released it in other markets through 2009 and in the U.S. market in April 2009. At $19,800 as a five-door hatchback it will be the least expensive hybrid available in the U.S. 2010 Honda Insight--DC

Since 2002, Honda has also been selling the

Honda Civic Hybrid The is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1972. Since 2000, the Civic has been categorized as a compact car, while previously it occupied the subcompact class. , the Civic is positioned between the Honda Fit/City and Honda Ac ...

(2003 model) in the U.S. market. It was followed by the

Honda Accord Hybrid The , also known as the in Japan and China for certain generations, is a series of cars manufactured by Honda since 1976, best known for its four-door sedan variant, which has been one of the best-selling cars in the United States since 1989. ...

, offered in model years 2005 through 2007. Sales of the

Honda CR-Z The Honda CR-Z is a sport compact hybrid electric automobile manufactured by Honda and marketed as a "sport hybrid coupe." The CR-Z combines a hybrid gasoline-electric powertrain with traditional sports car elements, including a 2+2 seating arra ...

began in Japan in February 2010, becoming Honda's third hybrid electric car in the market. , Honda was producing around 200,000 hybrids a year in Japan. Sales of the Fit Hybrid began in Japan in October 2010, at the time, the lowest price for a gasoline-hybrid electric vehicle sold in the country. The European version, called

Honda Jazz Hybrid The Honda Fit ( Japanese: ホンダ・フィット, Hepburn: ''Honda Fitto'') or Honda Jazz is a small car manufactured and marketed by Honda since 2001 and now in its fourth generation. It has a five-door hatchback body style and is considered ...

, was released in early 2011. During 2011 Honda launched three hybrid models available only in Japan, the Fit Shuttle Hybrid, Freed Hybrid and Freed Spike Hybrid. Honda's cumulative global hybrid sales passed the 1 million unit milestone at the end of September 2012, 12 years and 11 months after sales of the first generation Insight began in Japan November 1999. A total of 187,851 hybrids were sold worldwide in 2013, and 158,696 hybrids during the first six months of 2014. ''Honda sold 187,851 hybrids in 2013''. ''Honda sold 158,696 hybrids during the first six months of 2014''. , Honda has sold more than 1.35 million hybrids worldwide.

Hydrogen fuel cell

In Takanezawa, Japan, on 16 June 2008, Honda Motors produced the first assembly-line FCX Clarity, a

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...

. More efficient than a gas-electric hybrid vehicle, the FCX Clarity combines

and

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as ...

from ordinary air to generate electricity for an electric motor. In July 2014 Honda announced the end of production of the

Honda FCX Clarity The Honda Clarity is a nameplate used by Honda on alternative fuel vehicles. It was initially used only on hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles such as the 2008 Honda FCX Clarity, but in 2017 the nameplate was expanded to include the battery-elec ...

for the 2015 model. The vehicle itself does not emit any

pollutants A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like o ...

and its only by-products are heat and water. The FCX Clarity also has an advantage over gas-electric hybrids in that it does not use an

to propel itself. Like a gas-electric hybrid, it uses a

lithium ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also see ...

to assist the fuel cell during acceleration and capture energy through

regenerative braking Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. In this mechanism, the electric traction mo ...

, thus improving fuel efficiency. The lack of hydrogen filling stations throughout developed countries will keep production volumes low. Honda will release the vehicle in groups of 150. California is the only U.S. market with infrastructure for fueling such a vehicle, though the number of stations is still limited. Building more stations is expensive, as the

California Air Resources Board The California Air Resources Board (CARB or ARB) is the "clean air agency" of the government of California. Established in 1967 when then-governor Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford-Carrell Act, combining the Bureau of Air Sanitation and the Moto ...

(CARB) granted $6.8 million for four H2 fueling stations, costing US$1.7 million each. Honda views hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as the long-term replacement of piston cars, not battery cars.

Plug-in electric vehicles

The all-electric

Honda EV Plus The Honda EV Plus was the first battery electric vehicle from a major automaker that did not use lead acid batteries. Roughly 340 EV Plus models were produced and released. Production of the EV Plus was discontinued in 1999 after Honda announced t ...

was introduced in 1997 as a result of CARB's

zero-emissions vehicle A zero-emission vehicle, or ZEV, is a vehicle that does not emit exhaust gas or other pollutants from the onboard source of power. The California definition also adds that this includes under any and all possible operational modes and conditions ...

mandate and was available only for leasing in California. The EV plus was the first

battery electric vehicle A battery electric vehicle (BEV), pure electric vehicle, only-electric vehicle, fully electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, ...

from a major automaker with non- lead–acid batteries The EV Plus had an all-electric range of . Around 276 units were sold in the U.S. and production ended in 1999. ''See Appendix E: Table E.1, pp. 124'' The all-electric

Honda Fit EV The second generation Honda Fit is a subcompact car or supermini manufactured by Honda from 2007 to 2014. It debuted on 17 October 2007 at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show. __TOC__ Overview The vehicle offered a longer wheelbase than its pred ...

was introduced in 2012 and has a range of . The all-electric car was launched in the U.S. to retail customers in July 2012 with initial availability limited to California and Oregon. Production is limited to only 1,100 units over the first three years. A total of 1,007 units have been leased in the U.S. through September 2014. ''See the section: December 2012 Plug-in Electric Car Sales Numbers'' The Fit EV was released in Japan through leasing to local government and corporate customers in August 2012. Availability in the Japanese market is limited to 200 units during its first two years. In July 2014 Honda announced the end of production of the Fit EV for the 2015 model. The

Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid The ninth generation Accord is a mid-size car introduced by Honda in 2012 which received a refreshed front fascia, grill, headlights, tail lights and alloy wheel designs for the 2016 model year. With the discontinuation of the smaller European an ...

was introduced in 2013 and has an all-electric range of Sales began in the U.S. in January 2013 and the plug-in hybrid is available only in California and New York. A total of 835 units have been sold in the U.S. through September 2014. The Accord PHEV was introduced in Japan in June 2013 and is available only for leasing, primarily to corporations and government agencies. The Honda Prologue is planned to be introduced in 2024 as a mid-size crossover EV SUV based on a General Motors

Ultium Ultium is an electric vehicle battery and motor architecture developed by General Motors. It is planned to be deployed for battery electric vehicles from General Motors portfolio brands along with vehicles from Honda and Acura. Ultium is ch ...

platform.

Batteries

In August 2022, Honda and LG Energy Solution announced a joint venture to build a new lithium-ion battery factory in the US for Honda and Acura electric vehicles. At the time of the announcement, the goal was for 40 gigawatt hours.

Marketing

Japanese marketing

Starting in 1978, Honda in Japan decided to diversify its sales distribution channels and created Honda Verno, which sold established products with a higher content of standard equipment and more sporting nature.Honda　国内四輪　新販売チャネル施策と、アキュラブランド導入を発表
Honda公式サイト 2005年12月14日 The establishment of ''Honda Verno'' coincided with its new sports compact, the

Honda Prelude The Honda Prelude is a car produced by Japanese car manufacturer Honda from 1978 until 2001. The two-door coupe was loosely derived from the Honda Accord, and spanned five generations. The Prelude was used by Honda to introduce the Japanese Honda r ...

. Later, the

Honda Vigor The is a premium sedan that was derived from the Honda Accord. It was sold in Japan through the '' Honda Verno'' dealer network from 1981 until 1995, and sold in North America from June 1991 (model year 1992) until 1994 as the Acura Vigor. Early ...

, Honda Ballade, and

Honda Quint The Honda Quint is a subcompact car manufactured by Honda in Japan from 1980 until 1985. It was introduced in February 1980 in Japan as a five-door liftback version of the Honda Civic, being more upscale than the Civic, and was sold at the ''H ...

were added to ''Honda Verno'' stores. This approach was implemented due to efforts in place by rival Japanese automakers

and Nissan. Honda Cars Osaka Nagahori

As sales progressed, Honda created two more sales channels, called Honda Clio in 1984, and Honda Primo in 1985. The ''Honda Clio'' chain sold products that were traditionally associated with Honda dealerships before 1978, like the

, and ''Honda Primo'' sold the Honda Civic, kei cars such as the Honda Today, superminis like the

Honda Capa The Honda Capa, short for "capacity", is a tall wagon produced by Honda between 1998 and 2002 for the Japanese market. It was introduced at the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show as the concept car "J-MW." It went on sale on April 24, 1998, with Honda series ...

, along with other Honda products, such as farm equipment, lawnmowers, portable generators, and marine equipment, plus motorcycles and scooters like the

Honda Super Cub The Honda Super Cub or Honda Cub is a Honda underbone motorcycle with a four-stroke single-cylinder engine ranging in displacement from . In continuous manufacture since 1958 with production surpassing 60 million in 2008, 87 million in 2014, a ...

. A styling tradition was established when ''Honda Primo'' and ''Clio'' began operations in that all ''Verno'' products had the rear license plate installed in the rear bumper, while ''Primo'' and ''Clio'' products had the rear license plate installed on the trunk lid or rear door for minivans. The

Renault Clio The Renault Clio () is a supermini car ( B-segment), produced by French automobile manufacturer Renault. It was launched in 1990, and entered its fifth generation in 2019. The Clio has had substantial critical and commercial success, being con ...

was sold in Japan at Nissan dealerships, but was renamed the Renault Lutecia. Lutecia is derived from the name of ''

Lutetia The Gallo-Roman town of ''Lutetia'' (''Lutetia Parisiorum'' in Latin, in French ''Lutèce'') was the predecessor of the modern-day city of Paris. It was founded in about the middle of the 3rd century BCE by the Parisii, a Gallic tribe. Trac ...

'', an ancient Roman city that was the predecessor of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

As time progressed and sales began to diminish partly due to the collapse of the Japanese "bubble economy", "supermini" and "kei" vehicles that were specific to ''Honda Primo'' were "

badge engineered In the automotive industry, rebadging is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. To allow for product differentiation without designing or engineering a new model or brand (at high cost or risk), a ma ...

" and sold at the other two sales channels, thereby providing smaller vehicles that sold better at both ''Honda Verno'' and ''Honda Clio'' locations. As of March 2006, the three sales chains were discontinued, with the establishment of ''Honda Cars'' dealerships. While the network was disbanded, some Japanese Honda dealerships still use the network names, offering all Japanese market Honda cars at all locations. HONDA Bike Shop

Honda sells genuine accessories through a separate retail chain called '' Honda Access'' for both their motorcycle, scooter, and automobile products. In cooperation with

corporate group A corporate group or group of companies is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. These types of groups are often managed by an account manager. The concep ...

partner

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...

, Honda sells an aftermarket line of audio and in-car navigation equipment that can be installed in any vehicle under the brand name

Gathers Gathers is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hank Gathers (1967–1990), American basketball player * James Gathers (1930–2002), American sprinter * Rico Gathers (born 1994), American basketball player See also * Mathers ...

, which is available at Honda Access locations as well as Japanese auto parts retailers, such as Autobacs. Buyers of used vehicles are directed to a specific Honda retail chain that sells only used vehicles called '' Honda Auto Terrace.'' In the spring of 2012, Honda in Japan introduced ''Honda Cars Small Store'' which is devoted to compact cars like the

, and ''

kei Kei may refer to: People * Kei (given name) * Kei, Cantonese for Ji (surname), Ji(姫) * Kei, Cantonese for Qi (surname), Qi(奇, 祁, 亓) * Shō Kei (1700–1752), king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom * Kei (singer) (born 1995), stage name of South Kor ...

'' vehicles like the

Honda N-One The (corporately styled as N-ONE) is a retro-styled kei car produced by Honda for the Japanese market. It was previewed at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show and went on sale on 1 November 2012. Together with the N-Box, N-WGN and N-Van, is part of ...

and

Honda S660 The Honda S660 is a two-seat targa sports car in the '' kei'' class manufactured by the Japanese manufacturer Honda with a transverse mid-engine and rear-wheel-drive layout. It is the successor to the Honda Beat (with regard to segment), and the ...

roadster. *All cars sold at

Honda Verno is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

Prelude, Integra, CR-X,

Vigor Vigor or vigour may refer to: Companies * Vigor S.A., a Brazilian food company * Vigor Industrial, an American shipbuilding, ship repair, and industrial service provider in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska ** Vigor Shipyards, four shipyards in Was ...

Saber A sabre (French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as the ...

Ballade Ballad is a form of narrative poetry, often put to music, or a type of sentimental love song in modern popular music. Ballad or Ballade may also refer to: Music Genres and forms * Ballade (classical music), a musical setting of a literary ballad ...

, Quint, Crossroad, Element, NSX, HR-V, Mobilio Spike, S2000,

, That's, MDX, Rafaga, Capa, and the Torneo *All cars sold at

Honda Clio is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

Accord,

Legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

Inspire The following is a thematic list of European Union directives: For a date based list, see the :European Union directives by number Numbering From 1 January 1992 to 31 December 2014, numbers assigned by the General Secretariat of the Council ...

, Avancier, S-MX, Lagreat, Stepwgn,

Elysion Elysium (, ), otherwise known as the Elysian Fields ( grc, Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, ''Ēlýsion pedíon'') or Elysian Plains, is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philos ...

, Stream, Odyssey (int'l), Domani, Concerto, Accord Tourer,

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...

, Fit,

, That's, Mobilio, and the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

*All cars sold at

Honda Primo is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

Civic Civic is something related to a city or municipality. It also can refer to multiple other things: General *Civics, the science of comparative government *Civic engagement, the connection one feels with their larger community *Civic center, a comm ...

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

, Acty, Vamos, Hobio, Ascot, Ascot Innova, Torneo, Civic Ferio, Freed, Mobilio, Orthia, Capa,

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...

, Z, and the

Beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...

International marketing

In 2003, Honda released its '' Cog'' advertisement in the UK and on the Internet. To make the ad, the engineers at Honda constructed a

Rube Goldberg Machine A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and (impractically) overly complicated way. Usually, these mach ...

made entirely out of car parts from a Honda Accord Touring. To the chagrin of the engineers at Honda, all the parts were taken from two of only six hand-assembled

pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content start ...

models of the Accord. The advertisement depicted a single cog which sets off a chain of events that ends with the Honda Accord moving and Garrison Keillor speaking the tagline, "Isn't it nice when things just... work?" It took 606 takes to get it perfect. Honda has done humor marketing such as its 1985 four-page "How to fit six Hondas in a two-car garage" print ad or "descending so low in a parking garage, they pass stalagmites and a

Gollum Gollum is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He was introduced in the 1937 fantasy novel '' The Hobbit'', and became important in its sequel, '' The Lord of the Rings''. Gollum was a Stoor Hobbit of the R ...

-like figure." In 2004, they produced the '' Grrr'' advert, usually immediately followed by a shortened version of the 2005 ''Impossible Dream'' advert. In December 2005, Honda released '' The Impossible Dream'' a two-minute panoramic advertisement filmed in New Zealand, Japan, and Argentina which illustrates the founder's dream to build performance vehicles. While singing the song "

Impossible Dream ''Impossible Dream'' is the fourth studio album (fifth album overall) by the American folk musician Patty Griffin, released on April 20, 2004. The album features an unlisted song – Griffin’s mother and father singing “The Impossible Dream ...

", a man reaches for his racing helmet, leaves his trailer on a minibike, then rides a succession of vintage Honda vehicles: a motorcycle, then a car, then a powerboat, then goes over a waterfall only to reappear piloting a

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries ...

, with Garrison Keillor saying "I couldn't have put it better myself" as the song ends. The song is from the 1960s musical '' Man of La Mancha'', sung by Andy Williams. In 2006, Honda released its ''Choir'' advertisement, for the UK and the internet. This had a 60-person choir who sang the car noises as the film of the Honda Civic is shown. In the mid to late 2000s in the United States, during model close-out sales for the current year before the start of the new

model year The model year (sometimes abbreviated "MY") is a method of describing the version of a product which has been produced over multiple years. The model year may or may not be the same as the calendar year in which the product was manufactured. ...

, Honda's advertising has had an

animated character Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated s to life. The role of a character animator is analogous to that of a film or stage actor and character animators are often said to be "actors wit ...

known simply as Mr. Opportunity, voiced by Rob Paulsen. The casual-looking man talked about various deals offered by Honda and ended with the phrase "I'm Mr. Opportunity, and I'm knockin'", followed by him "knocking" on the television screen or "thumping" the speaker at the end of radio ads. In addition, commercials for Honda's international hatchback, the Jazz, are parodies of well-known pop culture images such as

Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...

and

Thomas The Tank Engine Thomas the Tank Engine is an anthropomorphised fictional tank locomotive in the British ''Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher, published from 1945. He became the most popular and famous character in the series, ...

. In late 2006, Honda released an ad with ASIMO exploring a museum, looking at the exhibits with almost childlike wonderment (spreading out its arms in the aerospace exhibit, waving hello to an astronaut suit that resembles him, etc.), while Garrison Keillor ruminates on progress. It concludes with the tagline: "More forwards please". Honda also sponsored

ITV's ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passin ...

coverage of

in the UK for 2007. However, they had announced that they would not continue in 2008 due to the sponsorship price requested by ITV being too high. In May 2007, focuses on their strengths in racing and the use of the Red H badge – a symbol of what is termed as "Hondamentalism". The campaign highlights the lengths that Honda engineers go to in order to get the most out of an engine, whether it is for bikes, cars, powerboats – even lawnmowers. Honda released its Hondamentalism campaign. In the TV spot, Garrison Keillor says, "An engineer once said to build something great is like swimming in honey", while Honda engineers in white suits walk and run towards a great light, battling strong winds and flying debris, holding on to anything that will keep them from being blown away. Finally one of the engineers walks towards a red light, his hand outstretched. A web address is shown for the Hondamentalism website. The digital campaign aims to show how visitors to the site share many of the Hondamentalist characteristics. At the beginning of 2008, Honda released – the ''Problem Playground''. The advert outlines Honda's environmental responsibility, demonstrating a hybrid engine, more efficient solar panels, and the FCX Clarity, a hydrogen-powered car. The 90-second advert has large-scale puzzles, involving Rubik's Cubes, large shapes, and a 3-dimensional puzzle. On 29 May 2008, Honda, in partnership with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, broadcast a live advertisement. It showed

skydivers Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. F ...

jumping from an airplane over Spain and forming the letters H, O, N, D, and A in mid-air. This live advertisement is generally agreed to be the first of its kind on British television. The ad lasted three minutes. In 2009, American Honda released the ''Dream the Impossible'' documentary series, a collection of 5- to 8-minute web vignettes that focus on the core philosophies of Honda. Current short films include ''Failure: The Secret to Success'', ''Kick Out the Ladder'' and ''Mobility 2088''. They have Honda employees as well as Danica Patrick,

Christopher Guest Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born February 5, 1948) is an American-British screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor, and comedian. Guest is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed, and starred in ...

, Ben Bova, Chee Pearlman,

Joe Johnston Joseph Eggleston Johnston II (born May 13, 1950) is an American film director, producer, writer, and visual effects artist. He is best known for directing effects-driven films, including ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'' (1989), ''Jumanji'' (1995 ...

and

Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...

. The film series plays at dreams.honda.com. In the UK, national television ads feature voice-overs from American radio host Garrison Keillor, while in the US the voice of Honda commercials is actor and wrestler

John Cena John Felix Anthony Cena ( ; born April 23, 1977) is an American part-time professional wrestler, actor, and former rapper. He is currently signed to WWE. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is tied ...

In the North American market, Honda starts all of its commercials with a two-tone jingle since the mid-2010s.

Sports

The late F1 driver

stated that Honda probably played the most significant role in his three world championships. He had immense respect for founder, Soichiro Honda, and had a good relationship with Nobuhiko Kawamoto, the chairman of Honda at that time. Senna once called Honda "the greatest company in the world". As part of its marketing campaign, Honda is an official partner and sponsor of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, the Anaheim Ducks of the NHL, and the arena named after it:

Honda Center The Honda Center (formerly known as the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim) is an indoor arena located in Anaheim, California. The arena is home to the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League. Originally named the Anaheim Arena during construction ...

. Honda also sponsors

The Honda Classic The Honda Classic is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in south Florida. It was founded in 1972 as Jackie Gleason's Inverrary Classic, and prior to a schedule change in 2021 was frequently the first of the Florida events in late winte ...

golf tournament and is a sponsor of Major League Soccer. The "

Honda Player of the Year is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

" award is presented in United States soccer. The " Honda Sports Award" is given to the best female athlete in each of twelve college sports in the United States. One of the twelve Honda Sports Award winners is chosen to receive the

Honda-Broderick Cup The Honda-Broderick Cup is a sports award for college-level female athletes. The awards are voted on by a national panel of more than 1000 collegiate athletic directors. It was first presented by Tom Broderick, an American owner of a women's sport ...

, as "Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year." Honda sponsored

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

club

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spa ...

starting from 2014–15 season. Honda has been a presenting sponsor of the

Los Angeles Marathon The Los Angeles Marathon (formerly known as the City of Los Angeles Marathon) is an annual running event typically held each spring in Los Angeles, California, since 1986. The marathon was inspired by the success of the 1984 Summer Olympic Ga ...

since 2010 in a three-year sponsorship deal, with winners of the LA Marathon receiving a free

. Since 1989, the

Honda Campus All-Star Challenge Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (also known as HCASC) is a quizbowl academic competition for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The game was created and co-founded by Richard Reid, president and owner of the College Bowl Compan ...

has been a quizbowl tournament for

Historically black colleges and universities Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...

Facilities (partial list)

US sales

Production numbers

Notes

References

* "Move Over, Volvo: Honda Sets New Safety Standard for Itself", an article in the "News" section of the March 2004 issue of ''

'', on

page Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...

32 * * The story of Honda's entry and growth in the American market is documented in

Terry Sanders Terry Sanders (born December 20, 1931) is an American filmmaker having produced and/or directed more than 70 dramatic features, televisions specials, documentaries and portrait films. He co-heads the American Film Foundation and has produced a ...

' film The Japan Project: Made in Japan
Honda

Honda's Midlife Crisis: Honda's slipping market position and views of Fukui Takeo (Chief Executive magazine, December 2005 issue)

Honda's Corporate History

External links

* *
Honda Press Library
(Japanese, but with graphical timelines of car and bike models) * * * Wiki collection of bibliographic works on Honda {{Authority control Multinational companies headquartered in Japan Aircraft manufacturers of Japan Boat builders Car manufacturers of Japan Defense companies of Japan Japanese Imperial Warrant holders Lawn and garden tractors Marine engine manufacturers Moped manufacturers Motor vehicle engine manufacturers Motorcycle manufacturers of Japan Robotics companies of Japan Scooter manufacturers Truck manufacturers of Japan Manufacturing companies established in 1948 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1948 Technology companies established in 1948 Japanese companies established in 1948 1950s initial public offerings Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange IndyCar Series engine manufacturers Car brands Japanese brands Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers Motorcycle engine manufacturers Engine manufacturers of Japan Diesel engine manufacturers Pump manufacturers Electric motor manufacturers