Honda Motor Corporation Ltd. Japan

The Honda Motor Company Limited is a Japanese multinational corporation, established on 24 September 1948 known as a manufacturer of automobiles, aircraft, motorcycles, and power equipment. Honda has been the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959,as well as the world’s largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year.Honda became the second-largest Japanese automobile manufacturer in 2001and  was the eighth largest automobile manufacturer in the world behind Toyota, Volkswagen Group, Hyundai Motor Group, General Motors, Ford, Nissan, and Fiat in 2015. Honda was the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to release a dedicated luxury brand, Acura, in 1986.

Established

24 September 1948; 68 years ago

Headquarters

Minato, Tokyo, Japan

Founder

Soichiro Honda

Website

www.honda.com

History

1930s – 1950s :

Honda’s founder, Soichiro Honda, had great 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 to make piston rings working out of the Art Shokai garage.Tōkai Seiki won a contract to supply piston rings to Toyota, but lost the contract due to the poor quality of their products. He did not give up and  attended engineering school, visited factories around Japan to better understand Toyota’s quality control processes. In 1941 Honda was able to mass-produce piston rings acceptable to Toyota, using an automated process that could employ even unskilled wartime laborers.

1943

In 1943 Tōkai Seiki was placed under control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry  at the time of World War II, and  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. Honda cultivated with good relations ith  personnel at Toyota, Nakajima Aircraft Company and the Imperial Japanese Navy  postwar period. Tōkai Seiki’s Yamashita plant in 1944 due to bomber, and the Itawa plant collapsed  1945 Mikawa earthquake, and Soichiro Honda sold the salvageable remains of the company to Toyota after the war for ¥450,000, and  founded the Honda Technical Research Institute in October 1946.

With a staff of 12 men working in a 16 m2 shack, they built and sold improvised motorized bicycles, using a supply of 500 two-stroke 50 cc Tohatsu war surplus 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 called the Honda A-Type.In 1949, the Honda Technical Research Institute was liquidated for ¥1,000,000,  to incorporate Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

1950s – 1990s :

The first complete motorcycle, with both the frame and engine made by Honda. The 1949 D-Type, the first Honda to go by the name Dream. 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, launced in 1963. With small 356-cc straight-4 gasoline engine, came under the cheaper Kei car tax bracket. The first car from Honda was the S500 sports car. In 1965, Honda built a two-door commercial delivery van, called the Honda L700.

Honda’s first four-door sedan was not the Accord, and the air-cooled, four-cylinder, gasoline-powered Honda 1300 in 1969. 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 with mid-engine V6 and variable-valve timing.

2000s :

Japanese media reported in 1992 and 1993 that Honda was at serious risk of an unwanted and hostile takeover by Mitsubishi Motors. 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. To create a more environmentally-friendly company image. Later, 1995 gave rise to the Honda Aircraft Company with the goal of producing jet aircraft under Honda’s name.

Honda Motor Corporation: 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 percent of Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the United States were built in North American plants.

Logo

Honda logo is well-known to all drivers around the globe. It is one of the most eminent and recognizable badges among other automakers. It symbolizes durability in combination with confidence. Here you will have a chance to find about more about the logo of this popular Japanese car producer and reveal some of its secrets.

Hybrid Electric

In 2002, Honda was selling the Honda Civic Hybrid (2003 model) in the U.S. market. It was followed by the Honda Accord Hybrid. Sales of the Fit Hybrid started in Japan on October 2010. During 2011 Honda appeared with 3- hybrid models available only in Japan. The Fit Shuttle Hybrid, Freed Hybrid and Freed Spike Hybrid.

The Honda Civic GX was for a long time the only purpose-built natural gas vehicle (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 completely on compacted natural gas. In late 1999, Honda launched the first commercial hybrid electric car sold in the U.S. market. The Honda Insight, just one month before the introduction of the Toyota Prius.

Plug-in electric vehicles

All-electric Honda EV Plus appeared in 1997 as a result of CARBs zero-emissions vehicles. And the all-electric Honda Fit EV issued in 2012 and has a range of 82 mi (132 km.) Honda in Japan decided to variation its sales allocation channels, and produced Honda Verno since 1978.

List of few top most popular Honda models on JCT :

Fit

Vezel

Cr-v

Insight

Civic

Accord

Stream

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