Throughout his life, Honda's founder, Soichiro The HondaMotor Company, had an interest in automobilesLtd. He worked as a mechanic at the Art Shokai garage(Japanese: 本田技研工業株式会社, where he tuned cars and entered them in races. In 1937Hepburn: Honda Giken Kōgyō KK, with financing from his acquaintance Kato Shichirō, Honda founded Tōkai Seiki IPA: [honda] (Eastern Sea Precision Machine CompanyAbout this soundlisten); /ˈhɒndə/) to make piston rings working out is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of the Art Shokai garage.[11] After initial failuresautomobiles, Tōkai Seiki won a contract to supply piston rings to Toyotamotorcycles, but lost the contract due to the poor quality of their products.[11] After attending engineering school without graduatingand power equipment, and visiting factories around Japan to better understand Toyota's quality control processes known as "Five whys"headquartered in Minato, by 1941 Honda was able to mass-produce piston rings acceptable to ToyotaTokyo, using an automated process that could employ even unskilled wartime laborersJapan.[11][12]:16–19

Tōkai Seiki was placed under Honda has been the control world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a production of 400 million by the Ministry end of Commerce and Industry (called 2019, as well as the Ministry world's largest manufacturer of Munitions after 1943) at the start of World War IIinternal combustion engines measured by volume, and Soichiro Honda was demoted from president to senior managing director after Toyota took a 40% stake in the companyproducing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year.[115] Honda also aided became the war effort by assisting other companies second-largest Japanese automobile manufacturer in automating the production of military aircraft propellers2001.[11] The relationships Honda cultivated with personnel at Toyota, Nakajima Aircraft Company and was the Imperial Japanese Navy would be instrumental eighth largest automobile manufacturer in the postwar period.[11] A US B-29 bomber attack destroyed Tōkai Seiki's Yamashita plant in 1944, and the Itawa plant collapsed on 13 January 1945 Mikawa earthquake. Soichiro Honda sold the salvageable remains of the company to Toyota after the war for ¥450,000 and used the proceeds to found the Honda Technical Research Institute world in October 19462015.[11][13]

With Honda was the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to release a staff of 12 men working in a 16 m2 (170 sq ft) shackdedicated luxury brand, they built and sold improvised motorized bicyclesAcura, using a supply of 500 two-stroke 50 cc Tohatsu war surplus radio generator enginesin 1986.[11][12]:19[14] When the engines ran out, Honda began building Aside from their own copy of the Tohatsu engine, core automobile and supplying these to customers to attach to their bicycles.[11][14] This was the Honda A-Typemotorcycle businesses, nicknamed the Bata Bata for the sound the engine made.[11] In 1949, the Honda Technical Research Institute was liquidated for ¥1also manufactures garden equipment,000marine engines,000personal watercraft and power generators, or about US$5and other products. Since 1986,000 today; these funds were used to incorporate Honda Motor Co., Ltdhas been involved with artificial intelligence/robotics research and released their ASIMO robot in 2000.[12]:21 At about They have also ventured into aerospace with the same time establishment of GE Honda hired engineer Kihachiro Kawashima, Aero Engines in 2004 and Takeo Fujisawa who provided indispensable business and marketing expertise to complement Soichiro the Honda's technical bentHA-420 HondaJet, which began production in 2012.[12]Honda has two joint-ventures in China:21 The close partnership between Soichiro Dongfeng Honda and Fujisawa lasted until they stepped down together in October 1973Guangqi Honda.[12]:21

The first complete motorcycle, with both the frame and engine made by Honda, was the 1949 D-TypeIn 2013, the first Honda to go by the name Dreaminvested about 5.[13][15] In 1961, Honda achieved its first Grand Prix victories and World Championships in 125cc and 250cc7% (US$6.[16] Honda Motor Company grew in a short time to become the world's largest manufacturer 8 billion) of motorcycles by 1964.[citation needed] The first production automobile from Honda was the T360 mini pick-up truck, which went on sale in August 1963.[17] Powered by a small 356-cc straight-4 gasoline engine, it was classified under the cheaper Kei car tax bracket.[18] The first production car from Honda was the S500 sports car, which followed the T360 into production in October 1963. Its chain-driven rear wheels pointed to Honda's motorcycle origins.[19] Over the next few decades, Honda worked to expand its product line and expanded operations and exports to numerous countries around the world. In 1986, Honda introduced the successful Acura brand to the American market revenues in an attempt to gain ground in the luxury vehicle market. The year 1991 saw the introduction of the Honda NSX supercar, the first all-aluminum monocoque vehicle that incorporated a mid-engine V6 with variable-valve timing.[20] CEO Tadashi Kume was succeeded by Nobuhiko Kawamoto in 1990. Kawamoto was selected over Shoichiro Irimajiri, who oversaw the successful establishment of Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. in Marysville, Ohio. Irimajiri and Kawamoto shared a friendly rivalry within Honda; owing to health issues, Irimajiri would resign in 1992. Following the death of Soichiro Honda and the departure of Irimajiri, Honda found itself quickly being outpaced in product development by other Japanese automakers and was caught off-guard by the truck and sport utility vehicle boom of the 1990s, all which took a toll on the profitability of the company. Japanese media reported in 1992 and 1993 that Honda was at serious risk of an unwanted and hostile takeover by Mitsubishi Motors, which at the time was a larger automaker by volume and was flush with profits from its successful Pajero research and Diamante models.[21] Kawamoto acted quickly to change Honda's corporate culture, rushing through market-driven product development that resulted in recreational vehicles such as the first-generation Odyssey and the CR-V, and a refocusing away from some of the numerous sedans and coupes that were popular with the company's engineers but not with the buying public. The most shocking change to Honda came when Kawamoto ended the company's successful participation Also in Formula One after the 1992 season2013, citing costs in light of the takeover threat from Mitsubishi as well as the desire to create a more environmentally friendly company image.[22] The Honda Aircraft Company as established in 2006 as a wholly owned subsidiary to manufacture and sell became the HondaJet family of aircraft.[23][24] The first deliveries Japanese automaker to customers began in December 2015.[25] On 23 February 2015, Honda announced that CEO and President Takanobu Ito would step down and be replaced by Takahiro Hachigo by June; additional retirements by senior managers and directors were expected.[26] In October 2019, Honda was reported to be in talks with Hitachi to merge the two companies' car parts businesses, creating a components supplier with almost $17 billion in annual sales.[27] In January 2020, Honda announced that it would be withdrawing employees working in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[28] Due to the global spread of the virus, Honda became the first major automaker with operations in net exporter from the US to suspend production in its factories on March 23, 2020. It resumed automobileUnited States, engine and transmission production at its US plants on May 11exporting 108, 2020.[29] 705 Honda and General Motors announced in September 2020 a North American alliance to begin in 2021.[30] According to The Detroit Free Press, "The proposed alliance will include sharing a range of vehiclesAcura models, to be sold under each company’s distinct brandswhile importing only 88, as well as cooperation in purchasing, research and development, and connected services357."