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Honda marked its first 50 years marketing motorcycles in America
Maverick - Jun 24, 2009
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American Honda was the first overseas subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., established eleven years after HMC's inception as a small motorcycle manufacturer in Japan. Honda entered the U.S. market in 1959 with the step-through Honda 50 motorcycle and helped spur the dramatic growth of the U.S. motorcycle market, as it became the best-selling brand in America.
Honda created the motorcycle market in the U.S. By leading American consumers to reconsider the motorcycle's place in society Honda almost single-handedly changed the image of 2-wheeled transportation from something for motorcycle gangs to a form of transportation appropriate for everyone.
Starting in 1959, with the fuel-efficient Honda 50 motorcycle, to the newly launched 2010 Honda Insight gas-electric hybrid vehicle, Honda has introduced new technologies and business strategies that have shaped the transportation industry and the growth of Honda, including:
- First automaker to meet U.S. Clean Air Act without a catalytic converter - Civic CVCC (1974)
- First vehicle to top U.S. EPA list of most fuel efficient cars - Civic (1977)
- First Japanese automaker to build motorcycles (1979) and automobiles (1982) in America - Marysville, Ohio*
- First Japanese automaker to establish a luxury automobile brand -- Acura (1986)
- First mass produced gas electric hybrid car introduced in America -- Insight (1999)
- First government-certified hydrogen fuel cell vehicle -- FCX (2002)
Motorcyclists can anticipate innovation in electric motorcycle technology from Honda as early as 2010.
Honda of America Mfg., Inc, opened its Marysville Motorcycle Plant, Marysville, Ohio, in September of 1979. As Honda's first U.S. production facility, the Marysville Motorcycle Plant remains the only facility in the world to produce Honda's top-of-the-line touring motorcycle - the Gold Wing - and the industry's most powerful V-twin cruiser - the VTX1800. The plant has produced more than 2 million motorcycles and ATVs, with its products exported to 43 countries, including Japan. The flexible plant added motorcycle engine assembly in January 2000
Honda has steadily expanded its U.S. presence to encompass a broad range of products and operations. Today, Honda employs more than 27,000 U.S. associates engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, sale and servicing of Honda and Acura products including automobiles, motorcycles, ATVs, personal water craft, power equipment, and an advanced light jet.
Honda operates 10 U.S. manufacturing plants with two new plants under construction, along with 14 R&D facilities and more than 12 regional sales, parts and service, and finance offices around the country. The company's network of U.S. parts suppliers comprises 545 companies in 34 states with annual purchases exceeding $17.5 billion in 2008.
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