Honda History and Heritage
Honda’s history in the US, in the form of the American Honda Motor Company, is one of the most interesting stories of any automotive manufacturer. It is a history characterized by bold moves and many industry firsts. A look at this history can help in understanding how Honda, and the automotive industry as a whole, got to where it is today.
American Honda – The Early Days
Honda isn’t quite as old a company as its Japanese competitors, having been founded in 1946. But Honda was a pioneer when it came to investing in the American market, founding American Honda Motor Company in Los Angeles in 1959. This wasn’t just a first for a Japanese brand; most foreign motor vehicle companies didn’t have a corporate presence in the US, and vehicles made overseas were generally sold not by dealerships but by import companies. In those early days, Honda was only selling motorcycles in the US, expanding slowly and focusing only on the West Coast. By 1963, Honda had established enough of a dealer network to launch the “you meet the nicest people on a Honda” advertising campaign, and sales exploded overnight. By the end of the year, Honda was outselling every other motorcycle manufacturer in the US market combined, and the company needed to move to a new headquarters in Gardena, California.
Honda American – Early Cars
Honda’s first car sold in the US was the N600, introduced in 1969 as a 1970 model. This was the height of the muscle car era in the US, and a little 45-horsepower hatchback wasn’t exactly what Americans were looking for at the time, but it (and the coupe version, the Z600) sold reasonably well considering there were only 32 Honda car dealerships in the country in those early days. Then, in 1973, Honda introduced the Civic, which was much better suited to American roads than the smaller previous models. Later that year came the energy crisis, and small cars were suddenly huge business. Just three years later, Honda had expanded to 630 dealerships and launched the even bigger Accord hatchback. New emissions regulations during this period were also causing problems for other manufacturers, strangling performance on popular models in order to ease the strain on the generally inadequate emissions control systems of the day. But the 1974 Civic CVCC became famous at this time for being so well engineered that it didn’t even need a catalytic converter in order to meet emissions standards.
American Honda – American Manufacturing and The Birth of Acura
The 70s had been a successful period, and Honda knew that continued success meant further investment in America. In 1975, Honda Research California was created to help develop new models and technologies with more of a focus on the US market, and in 1979, Honda became the first Japanese manufacturer to build a manufacturing plant in the US, in Marysville, Ohio. Initially, this was just for motorcycle manufacturing, still a huge business for Honda, but it has expanded to car manufacturing just a couple of years later in 1982. This started with the Accord, and by 1986 also included the Civic. In 1988, the Honda Accord became the first car from a Japanese manufacturer to be exported from the US to Japan.
In 1986, Honda started offering luxury models for the Japanese market. New luxury models were offered for North America as well, but in this market, Honda did a better job of delineating which was which by becoming the first Japanese manufacturer to launch a luxury subbrand, Acura. The first Acura model was the Legend, a midsize sedan or coupe that sold well for the next ten years. Competitors scrambled to catch up, with both Lexus and Infiniti launching in 1989, but by then, Honda had something new in the works, the NSX. This was the first Japanese supercar sold in the US, and it remains an absolute icon of its era.
American Honda – The Modern Era
With the success of Acura and its new halo model, American Honda had once again outgrown its headquarters, and in 1990, the company moved to its current location in a 101-acre facility in Torrance, California. Honda has continued to develop cutting-edge technology for reducing emissions, and in 1999, introduced the Insight, the first hybrid production car in the US market. This was followed by the Civic Hybrid, the first existing model to be sold with an optional hybrid version in the US. Following this, Honda introduced limited-production models powered by natural gas and hydrogen fuel cells, rather than limit itself to just BEV vehicles like so many other manufacturers. Of course, Honda has a BEV too, the Prologue, which launched in 2024.
Honda has always been committed to American manufacturing, and that commitment has only increased over time. And today, American Honda operates twelve manufacturing facilities in the US. Much of this is automotive, but Honda also produces all-terrain vehicles, all kinds of power equipment, and aircraft. Honda has also become heavily involved in motorsports in America, and Honda-powered IndyCar teams have dominated the series for more than 20 years. In all, the story of American Honda is defined by innovation, but perhaps more importantly, knowing exactly what consumers actually want.