It has taken 53 years and the structure of producing facilities across five continents, but Honda has formally developed its 100 millionth motorcar.
Unlike other Japanese automakers, Honda didn’t begin life as an existing huge corporation that wished to include auto-making to its existing portfolio of goods and items. Honda’s worldwide success grew out of one guy’s fascination with engines.
Soichiro Honda began exactly what is now recognized as Honda after the Second World War as an engineering research center concentrated on improvising motorized bikes. By 1949 it was developing its own Honda-branded motorbikes from the ground up, and by 1964 was the world’s most significant bike maker.
It moved from 2 wheels to 4 in 1963 with the T360 compact pickup and the S500 cars, both of which were powered by Honda bike engines. Under a year it had constructed its first devoted car production plant and launched the now iconic and highly collectible S600 roadster.
While business founder Soichiro Honda stepped down in 1973, Honda has continued to innovate and take a different course from its fellow Japanese auto companies.
In 1986 it became the very first Japanese automaker to establish a standalone high-end brand, Acura, which assisted it get into the premium United States vehicle market. And after 4 years followed it up with the NSX, the first supercar of Japan and one with a chassis and suspension system co-developed by famous Formula One motorist, Ayrton Senna.
Honda is likewise the home of the incredible VTEC engine with its innovative variable valve lift and valve timing system that since 1991 has been enabling the best possible mix of performance and fuel economy. Exactly what’s more, regardless of being a really complex engine, the automaker to this day never had a VTEC engine failure that was an outcome of a manufacturing defect.
“The passion of our company creator who wanted to help individuals in their every day lives and pursue the happiness of driving has been acquired by Honda associates as the initial beginning point of Honda automobile manufacturing,” stated Takahiro Hachigo, President and CEO of Honda Motor. “Making every effort to satisfy the next 100 million customers, Honda will keep delivering increasingly appealing products.”
There’s a likelihood that a lot of the next 100 million Hondas will be autonomous. On Thursday, the company again become being the first Japanese automaker to reveal a collaboration with Google’s self-driving car technology firm, Waymo. The ultimate objective of the partnership is to have a production vehicle with highway self-driving technology on sale by 2020.