► Honda builds 100 millionth car
► Milestone takes 53 years
► Firm builds 18,000 cars a day
Honda has announced a heart-warming production milestone three days before Christmas: it’s just built its 100 millionth car.
The company has yet to issue details of which model rolled off which production line to pass the landmark figure. Not an easy detail to ascertain, when you build 18,000 cars a day…
We see it as welcome affirmation that car makers can prosper as independents – Honda remains a fiercely separate entity and has resisted pressures to tie the knot with other manufacturers.
Although it has struggled in Europe in recent years, it remains one of the world’s major players. It built 661,000 cars in Japan in the first 10 months of 2016 – and a further 3.5 million in the same period elsewhere in the world.
Honda: 100 million cars built in 53 years
The Honda Motor Company started life as a motorcycle manufacturer, but branched out into four-wheeled production in 1963 with the T360 mini-truck (below) and S500 sports car (bottom of page).
A year later, it created its first car plant in Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture, which manufactured the S600 roadster. Today Honda has 34 factories across five continents, including the Swindon factory in the UK (main picture).
Tellingly, Honda builds more internal combustion engines than anyone else in the world, when you take into account its motorcycle, marine and lawnmower divisions.
President and chief executive of Honda, Takahiro Hachigo, said: ‘The passion of our company founder who wanted to help people in their daily lives and pursue the joy of driving has been inherited by Honda associates as the original starting point of Honda automobile manufacturing.
‘Striving to meet the next 100 million customers, Honda will continue delivering increasingly attractive products.’
Which is your favourite Honda of the first 53 years? Be sure to tell us in the comments below
