Honda Motor Co., Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, was established in 1948 and now has more than 130,000 associates around the world.

With more than 130 production facilities in 29 countries worldwide, Honda manufactures and markets motorcycles, automobiles, and power products on a global basis.  Honda is the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer and also ranks among the ten largest automakers in the world.  Honda products now annually reach approximately 20 million new customers worldwide.  In 2004, Honda sold 10.8 million motorcycles, 3.2 million automobiles, and 5.6 million power products.  For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, Honda achieved net sales of 8.65 trillion yen with net income of 480 billion yen.

Since its establishment, Honda has evolved its business based on a focus on "worldwide customer satisfaction."  At the same time, Honda has been fully committed to fulfilling its responsibilities as a corporate citizen by proactively addressing such issues as the environment, energy conservation and safety through continuous innovation of industry-leading advanced technologies.

Today, global environmental issues are receiving increased attention.  Honda has been working steadfastly to achieve a further reduction in toxic emissions and CO2 as well as making more efficient use of energy and other resources throughout its entire operations including R&D, manufacturing, sales and marketing. For example, Honda is committed to reducing the environmental impact of its products and operations including achieving cleaner emissions and higher fuel efficiency in Honda products, and the introduction of an environmentally-friendly "green factory" concept for the company's production lines.

As a company focused on improving mobility, Honda is committed to create automobiles with higher levels of safety not only for vehicle occupants, but also for pedestrians. Further, Honda is proactively contributing to efforts to solve various challenges related to transportation including promotion of safe driving.

Honda is also working to improve quality of life through enhanced mobility.  Honda developed the world's first independent, bipedal humanoid robot.  The latest version of ASIMO is now equipped with autonomous running technologies and the R&D achievements have been highly acclaimed around the world. In addition, Honda has invested in the research and development of a jet engine and fuselage, and has begun test flights of HondaJet - a small business jet equipped with Honda's HF118 turbofan engine. 

The "Challenging Spirit" that is at the core of Honda's pursuit of advanced technologies has its origin in Honda's racing activities.  From its early years, Honda has committed itself to racing because racing activities are viewed as opportunities to both pursue new technologies and develop young engineers. For MotoGP, the pinnacle of world motorcycle racing, Honda has won almost 600 races since first entering the competition in 1959. Honda first entered Formula One auto racing in 1964 - just the second year after Honda began its automobile business - and Honda has now won total 71 races overall.

Editor: Donald