Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Public
Type
(TYO: 7267) & (NYSE: HMC)
Soichiro Honda
Founder(s)
Takeo Fujisawa
Automobile
Industry Truck manufacturer
Motorcycle
Operating
▲ US$ 2.34 Billion (FY 2009)[1]
income
Employees 181876[2]
Website Honda.com
Contents
[hide]
• 1 History
• 2 Corporate Profile and Divisions
• 3 Leadership
• 4 Products
○ 4.1 Motorcycles
○ 4.2 Automobiles
○ 4.3 Mountain bikes
○ 4.4 Engines
○ 4.5 Robots
○ 4.6 Aeroplanes
• 5 Motorsports
○ 5.1 Automobile
○ 5.2 Motorcycles
• 6 Electric and alternative fuel vehicles
○ 6.1 Compressed natural gas
○ 6.2 Flexible-fuel
○ 6.3 Hybrid electric
○ 6.4 Hydrogen fuel cell
• 7 Marketing
• 8 Facilities (partial list)
• 9 US Honda models
• 10 Sales
• 11 See also
• 12 Notes
• 13 References
• 14 External links
[edit] History
This section requires expansion.
From a young age (7), Soichiro Honda (本田 宗一郎, Honda Sōichirō) had a great interest in
automobiles. He worked as a mechanic at a Japanese tuning shop, Art Shokai, where he tuned
cars and entered them in races. A self-taught engineer, he later worked on a piston design which
he hoped to sell to Toyota. The first drafts of his design were rejected, and Soichiro worked
painstakingly to perfect the design, even going back to school and pawning his wife's jewelry for
collateral. Eventually, he won a contract with Toyota and built a factory to construct pistons for
them, which was destroyed in an earthquake. Due to a gas shortage during World War II, Honda
was unable to use his car, and his novel idea of attaching a small engine to his bicycle attracted
much curiosity. He then established the Honda Technical Research Institute in Hamamatsu,
Japan, to develop and produce small 2-cycle motorbike engines. Calling upon 18,000 bicycle
shop owners across Japan to take part in revitalizing a nation torn apart by war, Soichiro received
enough capital to engineer his first motorcycle, the Honda Cub. This marked the beginning of
Honda Motor Company, who would grow a short time later to be the world's largest
manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964.
The first production automobile from Honda was the T360 mini pick-up truck.[citation needed]
Powered by a small 356 cc straight-4 gasoline engine, it was classified under the cheaper Kei car
tax bracket.[citation needed]
The first production car from Honda was the S500 sports car.[citation needed] Its chain driven rear
wheels point to Honda's motorcycle origins.[citation needed]
With high fuel prices and a weak US economy in June 2008, Honda reported a 1% sales increase
while its rivals, including the Detroit Big Three and Toyota, have reported double-digit losses.
Honda's sales were up almost 20 percent from the same month last year. The Civic and the
Accord were in the top five list of sales.[7][8] Analysts have attributed this to two main factors.
First, Honda's product lineup consists of mostly small to mid-size, highly fuel-efficient vehicles.
Secondly, over the last ten years, Honda has designed its factories to be flexible, in that they can
be easily retooled to produce any Honda model that may be in-demand at the moment.
Nonetheless, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota, three of the strongest vehicle companies in the world,
were still not immune to the global financial crisis of 2008, as these companies reduced their
profitability forecasts. The economic crisis has been spreading to other important players in the
vehicle related industries as well.[9][10] In November 2009 the Nihon Keizai Shinbun reported that
Honda Motor exports have fallen 64.1%.[3]
[edit] Corporate Profile and Divisions
Honda produces the Insight, an affordable hybrid electric vehicle that competes with Toyota
Prius
Its first entrance into the pickup segment, the lightduty Ridgeline, won Truck of the Year from
Motor Trend magazine in 2006 (also in 2006, the redesigned Civic won Car of the Year from the
magazine, giving Honda a rare double win of Motor Trend honors).
[edit] Mountain bikes
See also: Honda RN-01 G-cross
Honda has also built a Downhill racing bike, known as the Honda RN-01. Honda has taken on
several people to pilot the bike, among them is Greg Minnaar. The team is known as Team G
Cross Honda. The key feature of this bike is the gearbox, which replaces the standard Derailleur
found on most bikes.
[edit] Engines
This section requires expansion.
Since 2008, Honda has become a major sponsor of the CBS gameshow The Price Is Right. On
episodes in which a Honda car makes an appearance, both games that are played for cars use
Hondas as a prize, as well as the Showcases. Additionally, Honda's U.S. headquarters are located
in the home state of both host Drew Carey and announcer Rich Fields (Ohio).
In 2009, American Honda released the "Dream the Impossible Documentary Series," a collection
of 5-8 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 feature
Honda employees as well as Danica Patrick, Christopher Guest, Ben Bova, Chee Pearlman, Joe
Johnston and Orson Scott Card. The film series plays at dreams.honda.com.
[edit] Facilities (partial list)
Main article: List of Honda facilities
Trucks Ridgeline
Crossovers CR-V
Vans Odyssey
[edit] Sales
Calendar Year Total US sales
1999 1,076,893
2000 1,158,860
2001 1,207,639
2002 1,247,834
2003 1,349,847
2004 1,394,398
2005 1,462,472
2006 1,509,358
2007 1,551,542
2008 1,284,261