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 and 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 in 2004 and the
Honda HA-420 HondaJet, which began production in 2012. Honda has three joint-ventures in China (
Honda China,
Dongfeng Honda, and
Guangqi Honda).
In 2013, Honda invested about 5.7% (US$6.8 billion) of its revenues in research and development.
[10] Also in 2013, Honda became the first Japanese automaker to be a net exporter to the United States, exporting 108,705 Honda and Acura models, while importing only 88,357.
[11]
History
Throughout his life, Honda's founder,
Soichiro 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 Seiki (Eastern Sea Precision Machine Company) to make
piston rings working out of the Art Shokai garage.
[12] After initial failures, Tōkai Seiki won a contract to supply piston rings to
Toyota, but lost the contract due to the poor quality of their products.
[12] After attending engineering school without graduating, and visiting factories around Japan to better understand Toyota's quality control processes, by 1941 Honda was able to mass-produce piston rings acceptable to Toyota, using an automated process that could employ even unskilled wartime laborers.
[12][13]:16–19
Tōkai Seiki was placed under control of the
Ministry of Commerce and Industry (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.
[12] Honda also aided the war effort by assisting other companies in automating the production of military aircraft propellers.
[12] The relationships Honda cultivated with personnel at Toyota,
Nakajima Aircraft Companyand the
Imperial Japanese Navy would be instrumental in the postwar period.
[12] A US
B-29 bomber attack destroyed Tōkai Seiki's Yamashita plant in 1944, and the Itawa plant collapsed in the
1945 Mikawa earthquake, and 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.
[12][14] With a staff of 12 men working in a 16 m
2 (170 sq ft) shack, they built and sold improvised
motorized bicycles, using a supply of 500
two-stroke 50 cc Tohatsu war surplus radio
generator engines.
[12][13]:19[15] When the engines ran out, Honda began building their own copy of the Tohatsu engine, and supplying these to customers to attach their bicycles.
[12][15] This was the
Honda Model A, nicknamed the Bata Bata for the sound the engine made.
[12] In 1949, the Honda Technical Research Institute was liquidated for ¥1,000,000, or about
US$5,000 today; these funds were used to incorporate Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
[13]:21 At about the same time Honda hired engineer Kihachiro Kawashima, and
Takeo Fujisawa who provided indispensable business and marketing expertise to complement Soichiro Honda's technical bent.
[13]:21 The close partnership between Soichiro Honda and Fujisawa lasted until they stepped down together in October 1973.
[13]:21
The first complete motorcycle, with both the frame and engine made by Honda, was the 1949
Model D, the first Honda to go by the name Dream.
[14][16] Honda Motor Company grew in a short time to become the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964.
[citation needed]
The first production automobile from Honda was the
T360 mini pick-up truck, which went on sale in August 1963.
[17]Powered by a small 356-cc straight-4 gasoline engine, it was classified under the cheaper
Kei car tax bracket.
[18] The first 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.
[19]
Over the next few decades, Honda worked to expand its product line and expanded 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 market. The year 1991 saw the introduction of the
Honda NSX supercar, the first all-aluminum monocoque vehicle that incorporated a mid-engine V6 with variable-valve timing.
[20]
CEO
Tadashi Kume was succeeded by
Nobuhiko Kawamoto in 1990. Kawamoto was selected over
Shoichiro Irimajiri, who oversaw the successful establishment of Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. in
Marysville, Ohio. Both Kawamoto and Irimajiri shared a friendly rivalry within Honda, and Irimajiri would resign in 1992 due to health issues.
Following the death of
Soichiro Honda 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 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, who at the time was a larger automaker by volume and flush with profits from their successful
Pajero and
Diamante.
[21]
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 and the
CR-V, and a refocusing away from some of the numerous sedans and coupes that were popular with Honda's engineers but not with the buying public. The most shocking change to Honda came when Kawamoto ended Honda'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.
[22]
On 23 February 2015, Honda announced that CEO and President
Takanobu Ito would step down and be replaced by Takahiro Hachigo by June; additional retirements by senior managers and directors were expected.
[24]
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