Bangkok--5 Oct--Aziam Burson-Marsteller
In order to expand the joy with advanced technology and environmental friendly vehicles
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. President & CEO Mr. Takanobu Ito recently announced the company’s vision and improvements to its business operations with an aim to strengthen Honda’s “Direction for the next 10 years”, which is “to provide good products to our customers with speed, affordability and low CO2 emissions.” Honda has been devoting its full efforts to leveraging its unique technologies, ideas and ingenuity to create attractive products to please its customers. In addition, as a manufacturer of personal mobility products, Honda has been proactively executing various initiatives which contribute to a significant reduction of CO2 emissions.
In 2011, Honda was forced to deal with the unprecedented appreciation of the yen and the temporary suspension of production around the world because of a shortage of electricity due to the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the flooding in Thailand. However, thanks to the co-operation of its suppliers, business partners, and the efforts of Honda associates, Honda achieved a speedy recovery and as of today the company is ready to move aggressively in the marketplace.
Since it was founded, Honda has been delivering various products with a passion to use technology to make people’s lives more convenient and enjoyable. Honda’s products have been pleasing customers all around the world by making their work easier, increasing their mobility and adding more fun and convenience to their lives. In the previous fiscal year (ended March 31, 2012), Honda shared joy with more than 23.9 million customers around the world, including 15 million motorcycle customers, 5.8 million power product customers, and 3.1 million automobile customers.
In FY2017 (the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017) — the last fiscal year of the company’s next 3-year mid-term plan — Honda will strive to further expand the joy by aiming for more than 39 million new customers around the world, combining motorcycle, power product and automobile customers.
Operational Direction for Honda’s Automobile Business
In the area of its automobile business, in order to quickly address the needs of its customers around the world, Honda will implement global operational changes which will enable the company to ensure the best vehicle specifications with competitive costs. Three key initiatives to be undertaken as a part of these global operational changes are: 1) Concurrent development by all six regions, 2) Adoption of locally-optimized design drawings; and 3) Improvement of production efficiency.
As in the case of advanced nations, Honda will respond quickly to various market needs in rapidly-growing emerging markets while adapting each model to the industrial infrastructures of each country and region. Toward this end, Honda will pursue “concurrent development by all six regions”, where each region participates in product development concurrently and at the same level from the start of development. Introducing the same model in all regions within a short period of time enables Honda to secure a certain level of production volume on a global basis from an early stage of the product introduction, and the cost of parts sourcing can be significantly reduced by producing a large volume of parts all at once in the most competitive region.
Meanwhile, in order to create products that directly respond to the voice of local customers while utilizing local sourcing and production infrastructure to the maximum extent, Honda will adopt locally-optimized design drawings. Honda is fully committed to maximizing the joy of customers in each region. With these initiatives, Honda will increase its automobile sales in mature markets, namely Japan, the U.S. and Europe, from approximately 2.06 million units in FY2012 (fiscal year ended March 31, 2012), to more than three million units in FY 2017 (fiscal year ending March 31, 2017). With proactive business expansion in emerging markets, in FY2017, Honda will also strive to achieve automobile sales of more than three million units in emerging markets, doubling the sales of FY2012. By solidifying sales in advanced counties and growing dramatically in emerging nations, Honda will strive to achieve worldwide automobile sale of more than six million units in FY2017.
Advanced Technology and Environmentally-Friendly Vehicles
Honda will further advance its “Earth Dreams Technology,” a next-generation series of powertrain technologies which greatly enhance both driving performance and fuel efficiency at a high level through the improvement of internal combustion engines and transmissions, and also through the advancement of electromotive technologies applied to motors and other components.
For gasoline-powered vehicles, which remain the most widely-used in the world, Honda will continue developing internal combustion engines which will increase fuel economy to the ultimate level. Honda will adopt a newly-developed engine series first for the all-new 2013 Accord, and will continue to adopt these engines sequentially for other models.
For hybrid vehicles, Honda will adopt three different systems with unique individual characteristics, depending on the model, in order to fulfill the needs of more customers.
For the lightweight and compact one-motor hybrid system, the EV driving range will be expanded through the improvement of motor output and battery performance as well as a newly-developed transmission. In addition, Honda will strive to achieve the No. 1 fuel economy rating among all hybrid vehicles by improving the efficiency of regenerative energy recovery.
In the area of mid-size vehicles, following the market introduction of the all-new Accord-based plug-in hybrid model in the U.S. in early 2013, a hybrid model equipped with a two-motor hybrid system will be added to the lineup. After the U.S. introduction, these models will be introduced in Japan and other regions. The plug-in hybrid model which will go on sale in Japan will be equipped with a compact inverter capable of external power supply, which was developed by applying Honda’s generator technologies.
Concerning the pursuit of driving performance, a highly-efficient and high-output three-motor hybrid system, the Sport Hybrid SH-AWD (Super Handling All Wheel Drive), which offers both a high level of sporty handling and fuel economy, will be applied to the NSX, Acura RLX Sport Hybrid model and the successor model for the Legend, which will be introduced in Japan in 2014. Honda will measure up to the expectations of customers eagerly waiting these models by highlighting the presence of these hybrid vehicles with unrivaled driving performance and fuel economy.
For battery EVs, this summer in Japan and the U.S., Honda began lease-sales of Fit EV, which delivers the world’s best electric energy consumption performance. In line with changes in the energy situation, Honda will continue its efforts to develop EV models that will allow Honda to further penetrate the market for EVs.
For micromini vehicles, which Honda considers to be one of the directions battery-powered EVs can take, Honda will further advance the concept of a “micro commuter”, which was introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show last year. While incorporating ideas and technologies unique to Honda, the only automaker to have both motorcycle and automobile technologies, Honda is making progress in the development of new personal mobility products. Honda is planning to begin demonstration testing of such products in Japan in 2013.
For fuel cell electric vehicles, which Honda considers to be the ultimate environmentally-responsible vehicle, so therefore has been leading the industry in R&D and sales, Honda will launch an all-new fuel cell electric model sequentially in Japan, the U.S. and Europe starting in 2015. This new fuel cell vehicle will showcase the further technological advancements and significant cost reductions that Honda has accomplished.
The company also announced co-operation with Toshiba Corporation in the demonstration testing of the smart home system that Honda has been conducting in the city of Saitama. The two companies will jointly conduct demonstration tests with the goal of pursuing the optimization of energy generation and usage.
Since April 2012, as a part of the E-KIZUNA Project run by the city of Saitama, Honda has been conducting demonstration tests using two houses equipped with smart home systems built on land adjacent to Saitama University, with a goal to further reduce CO2 emissions from people’s everyday lives including mobility. A third demonstration house, which will be complete before the end of the next fiscal year on March 31, 2014, will be equipped with energy management systems from both Toshiba and Honda.
In the demonstration tests, Toshiba will utilize its smart meter and provide energy management within the community created by networking the three testing houses, as well as the technology which controls appliances in each house. Honda will provide energy generation and storage technologies as well as EVs. The two companies also will explore the possibility of collaborating their cloud-based services, developing the interconnectivity of their products, and reusing Toshiba’s SCiBTM battery installed in Honda EVs.
The goal for the two companies is to establish an optimal smarthome/smart community through collaboration between the Toshiba appliances used inside and outside of the home and energy management technologies which provide comprehensive control of these appliances, and Honda mobility, telematics and energy generation/storage technologies.
Honda’s telematics service, HondaLink, is designed to connect vehicles and people to provide a safe and enjoyable mobility society with low CO2 emissions. Honda will expand HondaLink to more than 60 countries around the world before the end of FY2014. The company will also continue its proactive commitment in various areas such as the expansion of robotics technologies including ASIMO technologies, contributing to children’s development, and promoting traffic safety.
Honda aims to continue growing while highlighting what makes Honda unique by proactively introducing dream-inspiring, exciting and fun products in order to further expand the joy for its customers and society.