How Soichiro Honda started Company
1937
Honda was founded by Soichiro Honda in 1937 throughout his life. Soichiro Honda had an interest in automobiles. He worked as a mechanic at the Art Show KY garage, where he tuned cars and enter them in races with financing from his friend Cathodes hero. Honda founded Tokai CK or eastern seat precision machine company to make piston rings. After initial failures Tokai CK won a contract to supply piston rings to Toyota but lost the contracts due to the poor quality of their products. Honda attended an engineering school but did not graduate, thanks to the visits to factories around japan to better understand Toyotas quality control processes.
1941
By 1941 Honda was able to mass-produce piston rings acceptable to Toyota using an automated process that could employ even unskilled wartime laborers. Tokai was placed under control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry at the start of World War two. Soichiro Honda was demoted from president to senior managing director after Toyota took a 40% stake in the company. During the wartime U.S bomber attacks destroyed the Yamashita and Matawa plan. Soichiro Honda sold the salvageable remains of the company to Toyota after the war for 450,000 yen and used the proceeds to found the Honda Technical Research Institute with a staff of 12 men working in a 16 square meter Shack. They built and sold improvised motorized bicycles. Using a supply of 500 two-stroke 50cc Tohatsu or surplus radial 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. This was the Honda a type nicknamed the bada bada for the sound the engine made.
1949
In 1949 the Honda Technical Research Institude was liquidated 1 millon. These funds were used to incorporate Honda Motor Company. At about the same time Honda hired engineer kihachiro Kawashima and Takeo Fujisawa. Who provided indispensable business and marketing expertise to complement Soichiro Honda’s technical Benz. The close partnership between Honda and Fujisawa helped the company thrive. The first complete motorcycle with both the frame and engine made by Honda was the 1949 D type. The first Honda to go by the name dream.
1964
Honda Motor Company grew in a short time to become the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964. The first production automobile frome Honda was a mini pickup truck powered by a small 356 cc straight-4 gasoline engine. During the 70s Honda continue to develop new lines of vehicles and expand their horizons. Honda exported it’s cars Honda Civic to the United States. These highly fuel-efficient cars were exactly what the American public needed as the energy crisis had full swing and gas prices soared.
1979 - 1984
A new stage in the history of Honda was underway, as they became the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to open a production facility in the US in 1979. The Accord was built at the brand-new Marysville Ohio manufacturing facility. In 1984 Honda CRX HF was the first car in the world to reach an EPA rating of 50 miles per gallon over the next few decades. Honda worked to expand it’s product line and expanded operations and exports to numerous countries around the world. Honda introduced the successful Acura brand in an attempt to gain ground in a luxury vehicle market. After the death of it’s founder Soichiro Honda in the early 90s. The new CEO Kawamoto acted quickly to change Honda’s corporate culture rushing through market driven product developments that resulted in the first generation Odyssey and the CR-V. The most shocking change to Honda came on Kawamoto ended the company successful participation in Formula One.
1992
After the 1992 season since then Honda has become a household name. It became a leader in producing quality automobiles that consumers loved to drive. They’ve even are in the 24th spot on Forbes most valuable brands list.
1995
The Honda aircraft company was established in 1995 as a wholly owned subsidiary. Its goal was to produce jet aircraft under Honda’s name.
As part of its vision to create a more sustainable mobility future. Honda introduced the clarity fuel cell representing the leading zero emissions vehicle technology. The hydrogen powered clarity can travel up to 366 miles on a single tank of fuel can be refueled in three to five minutes and emits only water vapor.
2018
The 2018 Honda Accord the tenth generation of America’s most popular car earned the prestigious North American Car of the year award. Accord was the first model from a Japanese automaker to be made in America with production exceeding eleven million vehicles. Over more than 35 years Honda is currently working toward a crucial goal which is to lower co2 emissions by 30 percent. It’s all part of their mission to ensure blue skies for children protecting the earth for future generations.
