Honda Reaches Production Milestone of 100 Million Cars

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has announced that the company has reached the production milestone of 100 million cars when it comes to cumulative global automobile production. Honda started automobile production in 1963 with the production of the T360 mini-truck, which was the first model that the company made on a mass-production level. The truck was made at Honda’s factory in Saitama Factory. In 1963, the company also began making its S500 small-sized sports car at the Hamamatsu Factory in Shizuoka Prefecture. In the next year, Honda set up its first factory that was devoted exclusively to automobile production in Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture. The first model made at the new plant was the S600 small-sized sports car. In 1967, Honda began production of the N360, its first mini car. Since then Honda has been continually increasing its cumulative production volume while expanding its product range, with key global models including Civic, Accord, CR-V and Fit which have proved to be popular with customers all around the world. The company developed further regional models to suit the requirements of customers in different markets where they were sold.
Ever since it was established, Honda has always conducted its business with an awareness of the global nature of its operations. In 1969, Honda expanded its manufacturing footprint to Taiwan by signing a technical collaboration agreement with a local company commencing production of N600 small-sized passenger car and TN360 mini-truck. This Taiwanese plant became the company’s first production facility outside Japan.

Honda soon expanded its manufacturing presence to other markets and set up a plant to produce Accords in Ohio, United States in 1982. This became Honda’s first automobile factory which it operated through its own local subsidiary outside of Japan. The Accords made at this plant became the first passenger cars produced in the U.S. by a Japanese automaker.

In order to “build products close to the customer” and to offer them products that suit their needs in a timely manner, Honda went on to expand its manufacturing operations to different regions of the world including Asia, Europe, South America and China. In recent years, Honda has focused on setting up a flexible and mutually complementary production system that optimizes the use of Honda’s 34 automobile plants spread across 18 countries and territories. Through these initiatives, Honda reached the 100million-unit milestone in cumulative automobile production in September this year, the 54th year from the date the company began automobile production.