Honda
Honda Motor Company, Ltd. announced that it has three hybrid vehicles in the works, including a new small hybrid scheduled for introduction in early 2009. Since Honda discontinued its two-seat Insight hybrid in 2006, the company has been known to be planning a new hybrid vehicle, but until now the details have been scarce. According to Honda, the new vehicle will be the most affordable hybrid to date and will be offered as a 5-passenger, 5-door hatchback. Honda expects to sell 200,000 of the vehicles each year, with half of those sales in the United States. [4]
Honda is also planning to introduce a hybrid version of its Fit [5], as well as another unique small hybrid vehicle based on the CR-Z sports car concept that it introduced at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. [6]
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Marketing
Honda's official slogan is "The Power of Dreams", however it has never used this to sell their products. It was Mr. Honda's belief that well built products will sell themselves. Many of Honda's most remarkable advertising campaigns have been released for the UK market, and have not been broadcast in North America except on the internet.
In 2003, Honda released its Cog advertisement in the UK and on the Internet. To make the ad, the engineers at Honda constructed a Rube Goldberg Machine made entirely out of car parts from the Honda Accord. To the despair of the engineers at Honda, all the parts were taken from two of only six hand assembled pre-production models of the Accord. The ad depicted a single cog which sets off a chain of events that ends with the Honda Accord moving and Garrison Keillor speaking the tagline, "Isn't it nice when things just... work?" It took 606 takes to get it perfect.[7]
In 2004, they produced the Hate Something advert, which is still shown on British television now, usually immediately followed by a shortened version of the 2005/2006 Impossible Dream advert.
In 2006, Honda released its Choir advertisement, for the UK and the internet. This featured a 60-person choir who sang the car noises as film of the Honda Civic are shown.
In December 2005, Honda released The Impossible Dream a two-minute panoramic advertisement filmed in New Zealand, Japan and Argentina which illustrates the founder's dream to build performance vehicles. While singing The Impossible Dream (The Quest), a man reaches for his racing helmet, leaves his trailer on a minibike, then rides a succession of vintage Honda vehicles; a motorcycle, then a car, then a powerboat, then goes over a waterfall only to reappear piloting a hot air balloon, with Garrison Keillor saying "I couldn't have put it better myself" as the song ends. The song is from the 1960s musical "Man Of La Mancha", sung by Andy Williams.
In Australia, Honda advertised heavily during most motor racing telecasts, and were the official sponsor of the 2006 FIA Formula 1 telecast on broadcaster channel "Ten". In fact, they were the only manufacturer involved in the 2006 Indy Racing League season. In a series of adverts promoting the history of Honda's racing heritage, Honda claimed they "built" cars that won 72 Formula 1 Grand Prix. Detractors scoffed and called it "false advertising", saying that nearly all those victories were claimed by Honda powered (engined) machines, with the cars themselves designed and built by Lotus F1, Williams F1 and McLaren F1 teams respectively. However, former and current staff of the McLaren F1 team have repeatedly proclaimed that Honda contributed more than just engines and provided various chassis, tooling and aerodynamic parts as well as funding. Ayrton Senna, arguably the greatest F1 driver of all time, repeatedly stated that Honda probably played the most significant role in his three world championships. He had immense respect for founder, Soichiro Honda and had a good relationship with Nobuhiko Kawamoto, the chairman of Honda at that time. Senna once called Honda "the greatest company in the world".
For the last several years, during model close-out sales for the current year before the start of the new model year, Honda's advertising has featured an animated character known simply as Mr. Opportunity, voiced by Rob Paulsen. The casual looking man talks about various deals offered by Honda and ends with the phrase "I'm Mr. Opportunity, and I'm knockin'", followed by him then him "knocking" on the television screen or "thumping" the speaker at the end of radio ads. Also, commercials for Honda's international hatchback, the Jazz, are parodies of well-known pop culture images such as Tetris and Thomas The Tank Engine.
As part of their marketing campaign, Honda is an official partner and sponsor of Major League Soccer.
In late 2006 Honda released an ad with ASIMO exploring a museum, looking at the exhibits with almost child-like wonderment (spreading out its arms in the aerospace exhibit, waving hello to an astronaut suit that resembles him, etc.), while Garrison Keillor ruminates on progress. It concludes with the tagline: "More forwards please".
Honda also sponsored ITV's coverage of Formula One in the UK for 2007. However they have announced they will not continue in 2008 due to the sponsorship price requested by ITV being too high.
In May 2007, focuses on their strengths in racing and the use of the Red H badge — a symbol of what is termed as "Hondamentalism". The campaign highlights the lengths that Honda engineers go to in order to get the most out of an engine, whether it is for bikes, cars, powerboats — even lawnmowers. Honda released its Hondamentalism campaign. In the TV spot, Garrison Keillor says, "An engineer once said to build something great is like swimming in honey." while Honda engineers in white suits walk and run towards a great light, battling strong winds and flying debris, holding on to anything that will keep them from being blown away. Finally one of the engineers walks towards a red light, his hand outstretched. A web address is shown for the Hondamentalism website. The digital campaign aims to show how visitors to the site share many of the Hondamentalist characteristics.
The following year, at the beginning of 2008, Honda release it's latest advert - the Problem Playground. The advert outlines Honda's environmental responsibility, demonstrating a hybrid engine, more efficient solar panels and the FCX Clarity, a hydrogen powered car. The 90 second advert features large scale puzzles, involving Rubik's cubes, large shapes and a 3-dimensional puzzle.
On 29 May 2008, Honda - in partnership with Channel 4 - broadcast a live advertisement. It showed skydivers jumping from an aeroplane over Spain and forming the letters H, O, N, D and A in mid-air. This live advertisement is generally agreed to be the first of its kind on British television. The advert lasted three minutes
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Facilities (partial list)
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Japan
- Suzuka, Mie — cars
- Hamamatsu, Shizuoka — motorcycles (ending 2009)
- Sayama, Saitama — cars, light trucks
- Kikuchi, Kumamoto — motorcycles, ATVs (all Honda motorcycles produced from 2008)
- Utsunomiya, Tochigi — vehicle R&D
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United States
North American Facilities List and description
- Lincoln, Alabama — Odyssey, Pilot, V6 engines
- East Liberty, Ohio — Civic Sedan/Coupe/GX, Element, CR-V
- Marysville, Ohio — Auto — Accord Sedan/Coupe, Acura TL, Acura RDX,
- Marysville, Ohio — Motorcycle — Gold Wing 1800, Valkyrie Rune, VTX 1300/1800, Shadow 1100, motorcycle engines
- Anna, Ohio — Engines
- Raymond, Ohio — Vehicle R&D
- Indian Lake, Ohio — Automatic transmissions
- Torrance, California — Vehicle R&D/design
- Swepsonville, North Carolina — General purpose engines, Walk-behind lawn mowers, Snow blowers, String trimmers, Water pumps, and Tillers
- Greensboro, North Carolina — HondaJet
- Greensburg, Indiana — Civic Sedan (Opening in Fall 2008)
- Timmonsville, South Carolina — All-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and personal watercraft (PWCs) — Four Trax Recon, Four Trax Foreman, Four Trax Rancher, Four Trax Rincon, Four Trax Rubicon, Sportrax 400EX/250EX, AquaTrax F-12/12X
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Canada
- Alliston, Ontario — Plant 1: Civic (coupe and sedan), Acura CSX
Plant 2: Ridgeline, Acura MDX, Civic sedan
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Mexico
- Guadalajara, Jalisco — Engines, CR-V SUV (50,000 units per year).
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United Kingdom
- Swindon, England, UK - EP3 - Civic SI (USA), Civic SiR (Canada), Civic Type-R, Type-S and standard (Europe, South Africa and Australia) as well as the Honda CR-V for the same destinations.
CR-Vs gen 2 was made here for eastcoast US while west coast US got Japan built CR-Vs
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Belgium
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Brazil
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Colombia
- Cali, Valle del Cauca — motorcycles
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Thailand
- Ayutthaya
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Turkey
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Malaysia
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Philippines
- Batangas — Motorcycles
- Laguna — Cars; Parts and Transmission
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Pakistan
- Lahore — Cars
- Sialkot — Cars
- Karachi — Motorcycles
- Sheikhupura — Motorcycles
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Argentina
- Zárate, Family Cars
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India
- Gurgaon, Haryana — Motorcycles
- Noida, Uttar Pradesh — Cars and SUVs
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Vietnam
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Robots
ASIMO is the part of Honda's Research & Development robotics program. It is the eleventh in a line of successive builds starting in 1986 with Honda E0 moving through the ensuing Honda E series and the Honda P series. Weighing 54 kilograms and standing 130 centimeters tall, ASIMO resembles a small astronaut wearing a backpack, and can walk on two feet in a manner resembling human locomotion, at up to 6 km/h (3.7 mph). It is the world's only humanoid robot able to ascend and descend stairs independently.[9] However, human motions such as climbing stairs are difficult to mimic with a machine, which ASIMO has demonstrated by taking two plunges off of a staircase.
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See also
- List of Honda vehicles
- List of Honda motorcycles
- List of Honda engines
- List of Honda transmissions
- List of Honda assembly plants
- Acura
- Dongfeng Honda Automobile Company - joint venture
- Honda Automobile (China) Company - importer of cars into China
- Honda Aircraft Company
- Honda Canada Inc.
- Honda Airport
- Honda "Cog" commercial-Famous Honda Accord commercial
- Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan
- Honda F.C. (Football (soccer) club)
- Honda Heat (Rugby union club)
- Honda Battle of the Bands
- Honda Type R
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Notes on sources
- "Move Over, Volvo: Honda Sets New Safety Standard for Itself", an article in the "News" section of the March, 2004 issue of Motor Trend, on page 32
- 2004 Annual Corporate Report
- The story of Honda's entry and growth in the American market is documented in Terry Sanders' film The Japan Project: Made in Japan. Honda
- Honda's Midlife Crisis: Honda's slipping market position and views of Fukui Takeo (Chief Executive magazine, December 2005 issue) [3]
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References
- ^ a b HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD. REPORTS CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE FISCAL FOURTH QUARTER AND THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED MARCH 31, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-00-14.
- ^ Mangion, Patrick (08-27), “Markham saves Honda deal”, Yorkregion.com: 1, <http://www.yorkregion.com/article/44477>
- ^ Last Lap Victory for Franchitti Seals 2007 IndyCar Title. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
- ^ http://corporate.honda.com/press/article.aspx?id=4510
- ^ http://automobiles.honda.com/fit/
- ^ http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=11391
- ^ Lights! Camera! Retake!. Telegraph. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
- ^ Honda Europe - Gent (HTML). Retrieved on 2008-05-18.
- ^ Frequently asked questions about ASIMO [1], Retrieved February 28, 2007
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External links
- Honda Worldwide site
- Honda Press Library (Japanese, but with graphical timelines of car and bike models)
- Honda ATV's in South Africa
- Honda Automobiles at the Open Directory Project
- Honda Motorcycles at the Open Directory Project
- Honda Club( German site about all manufactured Cars with their facts)
- Interview of Mr Masahiro Takedagawa, President & CEO, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd at infibeam.com
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| Type | 1990s | 2000s | ||||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| Subcompact | Insight | |||||||||||||||||||
| Civic | Civic | Civic | Fit | Fit | ||||||||||||||||
| Compact | Accord | Civic | Civic | |||||||||||||||||
| Mid-size | Accord | Accord | Accord | Accord | ||||||||||||||||
| Sports | CR-X | del sol | S2000 | |||||||||||||||||
| Prelude | Prelude | Prelude | ||||||||||||||||||
| SUV | Element | |||||||||||||||||||
| CR-V | CR-V | CR-V | ||||||||||||||||||
| Passport | Passport | Pilot | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pickup | Ridgeline | |||||||||||||||||||
| Minivan | Odyssey | Odyssey | Odyssey | |||||||||||||||||
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