Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced that the company has reached the 100 million-unit milestone in global automobile production.
Honda began automobile production in 1963 with the production of the T360 mini-truck and the S500 sports car. In a year’s time, all of the company’s production technologies and knowledge was employed to construct their first dedicated to automobile production plant in Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture. The new plant began production of a further model, the iconic S600 roadster.
Since that time, Honda has increased its annual production volume, enhancing its line up and exporting the brand to an ever wider range of countries. Honda’s current line-up in the in the GCC includes global models such City, Civic, Accord, Accord Coupe, CR-V, Pilot, Odyssey and Odyssey J. And most of their models are amongst the best sellers in their respective segments. Other markets also get models such as Clarity, Fit, Ridgeline and HR-V and the latest incarnation of their hybrid supercar, the NSX. As of 2016, the company has 34 automobile production facilities on five different continents.
“Thanks to the support from our customers around the world, Honda was able to deliver 100 million automobiles. The passion of our company founder who wanted to help people in their daily lives and pursue the joy of driving has been inherited by Honda associates as the original starting point of Honda automobile manufacturing. Striving to meet the next 100 million customers, Honda will continue delivering increasingly attractive products.”, said CEO of Honda Motor, Takahiro Hachigo.
In comparison, the cumulative total domestic production for domestic arch rival Toyota reached 100 million vehicles in 1999 and 200 million vehicles in 2012. While, their European rival, the Volkswagen Group also reached 100 million vehicles in 1999 and 200 million vehicles in 2014.
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. is also a manufacturer of automobiles, aircrafts, motorcycles, and power equipment. They also have been the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959 and produce as many as 14 million internal combustion engines each year. And since 1986, they has been involved with artificial intelligence and robotics research. They released their ASIMO robot in 2000.
