If there is a brand that has made technology its reason for being, it is Honda. Son of a weaver mother and a blacksmith father, Soichiro Honda began to give shape to his dream in the family bicycle workshop and at the age of 18 he was already a pilot and mechanic. In 1948, following his spirit of self-improvement, he founded the Honda Motor Company with 34 employees and began a story that would transform the automotive and mobility industry in the world.
Iconic brand for both automobiles and motorcycles, Honda has not stopped innovating in these 75 years and has done so in such important – and disparate – fields as ecology, sustainability, robotics, aeronautics and, of course, competition. .
Months after the creation of the brand, Honda's first motorcycle was born, the Dream D Type, a commercial success in Japan and the decisive step towards becoming the world's first manufacturer of two-wheeled vehicles. In the 1950s and 1960s, Honda continued to make history with vehicles such as the Super Cub C100 motorcycle and in 1969 they manufactured the first superbike in history, the Dream CB750 Four.
But Honda had to be more than just a motorcycle manufacturer, and in 1963 it launched its first car, the T360, followed by the legendary S500. They were the basis for the development of one of the industry's greatest successes, the Civic, a compact that quickly gained a reputation for being robust and efficient. The success of the Civic, which has already turned 50 years old and continues to be sold around the world, gave way to prestigious models such as the Accord or the NSX and their famous VTEC gasoline engines. And technological concern led Honda to produce the hydrogen fuel cell FCX in 2002.
In Formula 1 we must highlight his successful association with McLaren and the legendary drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost or, much more current, the titles achieved with Red Bull and Max Verstappen. And in motorcycling, the duo formed with Repsol that has crowned champions such as Mick Doohan, Valentino Rossi, Àlex Crivillé, Marc Márquez and the super champion Toni Bou.
Honda's future lies in the hands of a modern range of automobiles with highly efficient hybrid technology, cars like the new CR-V, HR-V and ZR-V, or the pure electric e:Ny1, which mix design, quality and technology in equal parts.
