Honda Motor announced that the company has reached the 100 million-unit milestone in cumulative global automobile production. Honda began automobile production in 1963 with the production of the T360 mini-truck, Honda’s first mass-production model, at Saitama Factory*1. In the same year, Honda began production of the S500 small-sized sports car at Hamamatsu Factory*2 in Shizuoka Prefecture.
In 1964, in order to move forward with full-scale automobile production, Honda employed all of the company’s production technologies and know-how and constructed the first Honda plant dedicated to automobile production, Sayama Factory*3 in Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture. The new plant began with production of the S600 small-sized sports car.
In 1967, Honda began production of the N360, Honda’s first mini-vehicle model. Since then Honda has been increasing its cumulative production volume while enhancing the product lineup, with key global models including Civic, Accord, CR-V and Fit enjoyed by customers all around the world. Further, regional models have been developed to accommodate the unique characteristics of the regions where each model is sold.
Since the company’s foundation, Honda has always conducted its business with an awareness of the global nature of its operations. In 1969, Honda began production of the N600 small-sized passenger car and TN360 mini-truck in Taiwan by signing a technical collaboration agreement with a local company, which became Honda’s first automobile production outside Japan.
Moreover, in order to increase international competitiveness, Honda entered overseas markets on its own and began production of Accord in Ohio, in the U.S. in 1982, which became Honda’s first automobile production by its own local subsidiary outside of Japan. This Accord became the first*4 passenger car produced in the U.S. by a Japanese automaker.
Honda expanded its automobile production operations to different regions of the world including Asia, Europe, South America and China. In recent years, Honda has been pursuing the establishment of a flexible and mutually complementary production system which utilizes Honda’s 34 automobile production operations in 18 countries and territories. Through these initiatives, Honda reached the 10 crore-unit milestone in cumulative automobile production in September 2016, the 54th year since the company started automobile production.
Honda will continue utilizing its global resources and offering attractive products for the joys of our customers all around the world.