Honda - All Car History Volume 13

Honda is the world's largest engine maker, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines every year. Honda's began building motorbikes but the S500 2-door roadster featuring a 492cc engine saw the company move into car production in an innovative way in the 1960s. The highly acclaimed Civic and Accord saw Honda make rapid international progress. Today, the company makes everything from cars and motorbikes, robots, jets and jet engines, to lawn and garden equipment. Honda's current crop of cars includes the Accord, CR-V, Civic, FR-V, Jazz, Legend and S2000. HONDA HISTORY In 1948 Honda's founder, Soichiro Honda, started a new company: Honda Motor Co. They soon came up with the "batabata", a motorised bicycle named after the sound the engine made which became a huge hit across Japan. Later, Honda's most popular model, the Dream, could be spotted all over the Japanese islands. Honda introduced its first car in 1957, the N360. In 1958, the American Honda Company was created. In 1972 Honda entered the American market with the small fuel efficient Civic - just as the energy crisis was hitting economies. In 1986 Honda introduced a luxury line of cars and in 2007 Honda announced plans to launch low-priced hybrids.

HONDA FACTS

Type: Public company
Founded: September 24, 1948
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
Key People: Soichiro Honda, Founder. Takeo Fukui, CEO
Industry: Automobile & Truck manufacturer & Motorcycle
Products: cars, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, ATVs, electrical generators, robotics, marine equipment, jets and jet engines, and lawn and garden equipment, Acura vehicles.

FEATURED MODELS

HONDA ACCORD - manufactured since 1976, first as a compact hatchback and then evolving into a premium large family estate and saloon car

HONDA CIVIC - a compact car first manufactured in 1972 and now in its eighth generation. The Civic Type-R is a widely respected hot hatch, while the Civic IMA is a hybrid with an electric motor and petrol engine