Honda UK launches Curiosity Documentary Ad Campaign

In the same way that documentaries dissect their subjects in order to provide a more complete view of the whole, a new series of Honda ads each hone in on a single feature of the auto company’s latest models.

As sponsors of Channel 4's Documentaries, Honda has launched this new TV campaign, created by Wieden + Kennedy London, which links brand and programming together. The tagline "The More We Look, The More We Learn" could be applied to the documentaries themselves, or the ads/"idents" which use footage that looks as though it came from a documentary to illustrate features of several different Honda products.

The campaign also includes a new website developed and created by Collective London, which indulges the kind of curiosity that accompanies an interest in documentaries. On the website, users will find a game that’s played with a series of questions themed ‘How curious are you?’ The site will Channel 4 content throughout the year. 


Source;
http://www.fastcocreate.com/1680950/ever-wonder-how-hondas-headlights-got-that-way

Erik Berkman of Honda Interview

In April Erik Berkman became the first American to lead North American research and product development for Tokyo-based Honda.

Erik Berkman’s iPhone wallpaper isn’t of his wife, children or dog. When Honda  Motor Co.’s new North American development chief gets a text message, he sees a background picture of the automaker’s V-6 IndyCar racing engine.

Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 last month using the engine designed by a team led by Berkman, who was at the track known as the Brickyard to watch. Motor-sports passion -- central to founder Soichiro Honda, who said, “If Honda does not race, there is no Honda” -- will be an asset if Berkman can apply the same speed and creativity to product development.

Honda’s first American president of R&D for the region is helping shape everything from a modified Civic and new Accord due this year to an overhaul of the Acura line that includes the NSX supercar. The 30-veteran of Tokyo-based Honda plans to win back its reputation for innovative cars in the face of improving Korean, U.S. and German competition as well as critical reviews.

“I know that there is a particularly high expectation for Honda to get back that magic it had at one time,” said Berkman, 53, in an interview last month at his new domain, the vast R&D center in Raymond, Ohio. “What are we going to do, complain that expectations are too high for us? That we want low expectations? That’s not right.”

Product development and engine innovations have a special place at Honda, which has been led since its beginning only by engineers, even as tight business controls appear to have led it to take fewer risks on core models in the past decade.

Sporty Ride

Along with overseeing eight U.S.-developed Honda and Acura models, Berkman has to find a way to add content and upgrade interiors within a company that controls spending so tightly it made money even through the recession, natural disasters and exchange rate pain. Honda is the only major automaker to have never had an annual loss.

While Honda and Toyota Motor Corp. won fans in the 1970s for durable cars that were inexpensive and fuel-efficient, Honda boasted the sportier ride, reflecting the founder’s racing fervor. Honda’s R&D Americas president has to get that back.

“Honda is off the rails; they still build a great car, but they aren’t leaders,” said John Wolkonowicz, an independent analyst in Boston who specializes in automotive history. “In the ’80s Honda, had the best cars on the market. They drove the best, had great fuel economy and people really loved them.”

While Honda’s U.S. sales in 2007 more than doubled the combined U.S. deliveries of Hyundai Motor Co.  and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. , the Koreans were within 1 percent of Honda last year. Accord, the best-selling car in the U.S. in 2001, has been topped by Toyota’s Camry every year since then. Toyota’s Corolla has exceeded Civic’s U.S. sales annually since 2003.

Honda’s Man

Berkman may be the ideal man for the job he started April 1, succeeding Hiroshi Takemura, who returned to Japan as deputy director of automobile operations. The compact engineer with close-cropped brown hair joined Honda in 1982 when it started making cars in the U.S. in Marysville, Ohio. His only automotive job before that was with a company John DeLorean hired to turbocharge DeLorean Motor Co.’s DMC-12 gull-winged sports cars.

After starting as a production engineer, Berkman moved to Honda’s U.S. R&D unit in 1991, working on models including the 1994 Accord wagon, 1999 Odyssey minivan and 2001 Acura CL coupe. His biggest success was leading development of the 2004 Acura TL sport sedan.

Before it became one of Acura’s best-selling cars, it was far from universally loved within Honda. High-end content, such as performance brakes by Italy’s Bre SpA (BREmbo), was seen as too costly. The exterior styling was too edgy and polarizing.

TL Controversy

“It was so controversial, it almost didn’t happen,” Berkman recalled. “It was too much for some people.”
Reactions to the TL’s design in consumer clinics didn’t clarify the situation, Berkman said. “Half the people said they loved it, half of them hated it,” he said.

Ultimately, his vision of the car was approved for production. More than 77,000 were sold in its first full year, making it 2004’s top luxury sedan.

“I fought for the one I wanted, and it worked,” he said.

Honda is counting on those instincts to come through again. Honda President Takanobu Ito, who worked with Berkman at the U.S. R&D center in the 1990s, and Executive Vice President Tetsuo Iwamura, head of North American operations, have high expectations for him.

“Through his career, he has a very good understanding of Honda,” Iwamura said in a March interview at Honda’s U.S. headquarters in Torrance, California. “What we expect him to do is, through this good knowledge and experience, fulfill his dream of making North America strong.”

Civic Tweaks

Honda is looking better in 2012 already. With the factories again running at full capacity, U.S. sales have expanded 10 percent this year, buoyed by a 48 percent increase last month. While the company has easy comparisons with last year’s disaster-limited results, it has three models among the top 10 sellers in the U.S. this year: the midsize Accord, CR-V compact sport-utility vehicle and the Civic.

The 2012 Civic drew a harsh review in Consumer Reports in August 2011 and failed to win the magazine’s “recommend” designation. The non-profit publication for decades consistently placed Honda models among its top picks. The magazine said the new car, compared with the version it replaced, had a choppier ride, less agility, longer stopping distances, more road noise and a worse interior.

Berkman has helped to fix it midstream. The model’s mid- cycle refresh, due in about three months, was moved up by about a year. Among the improvements will be better interior materials, he said.

“There’s an opportunity with the minor model change to tweak Civic,” Berkman said. “If we do that, we’ll knock off one more criticism.”

‘Earth Dreams’

He’s planning changes in styling, materials, driving dynamics and technology across the Honda and Acura model lines.

That begins this year with a revamped Accord featuring Honda’s new “Earth Dreams” family of engines and related technology, including continuously variable transmissions, the company’s first such powertrain change in a decade. Honda previously used CVTs only on small cars made in Japan.

Starting with the 2013 Accord, the new transmission, with an infinite number of gear ratios, replaces the current five- speed automatic to aid fuel-economy and performance, Berkman said. The engine line, with displacement ranges from 660 cubic centimeters to 3.5 liters, is being added to every new Honda model starting with Accord.

“You’re going to find that Accord is a very well-balanced product that is the best overall product in everything, whether we’re talking about interior packaging, content of the vehicle, the fuel economy of the vehicle,” he said. It “will be one of the most feature-rich vehicles we’ve ever made,” he said, without elaborating.

Acura Supercar

Acura, Honda’s premium brand that some auto reviewers don’t regard as a full-fledged luxury line, will also see new styling and benefit from technology such as the high-performance hybrid system going into the NSX, he said. The car, likely to cost more than $100,000, will be raced as well as sold, Ito said in Detroit in January.

The NSX will go on sale in about two years, Honda has said. An ad for the car that ran during this year’s Super Bowl featured comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno.

Berkman said his team is eager to shake off the idea that Honda’s vehicles have become bland or lack the value of its glory days.

“Having high expectations or pressure is what’s necessary to get us to a point where we’re performing,” he said. “We want everybody to fall over and go: There it is again. There’s that Honda we used to praise.”

Source;
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/honda-suffering-reputation-loss-taps-american-s-retooling.html

Euro-Spec Honda Fit Now Offers Engine Stop/Start Technology – Should It Come Here?

Written by: Karla Sanchez  of www.motortrend.com

While the Honda Fit EV is en route to select California and Oregon markets, the Japanese automaker continues to turn up the green factor, announcing the Euro-spec Honda Fit will be available with an engine stop/start system to improve fuel economy. With the technology already spreading into the subcompact segment, we wonder whether it might serve Honda well in the subcompact segment here in the U.S.

As the 2012 Honda Fit approaches the end of its life cycle, the hatchback gets as high as 28/35 mpg city/highway. The 2013 Kia Rio will be available with the tech in the Eco model that adds 1 mpg in the city for an EPA-estimated rating of 31/40 mpg. In our 2012 Kia Rio First Drive story, we noted that the system wasn’t as seamless as it could be, but “isn’t bad at all for a first go-around in a segment that thrives on value.”

The Euro-spec Honda Fit, dubbed the Jazz (pictured at right), with Idle Stop will deliver slight improvements in mileage and emissions, and while drivers will benefit from the Fit’s new system overseas, prospective Fit buyers in the U.S. will not. Honda spokeswoman Jessica Fini told us there are “no plans in the near future” to integrate Idle Stop in Fits slated for the U.S. The technology is currently available on Honda hybrids, including the CR-Z and Insight.

 Those hybrids, like other Hondas including the Fit, are shipped from Japan and are no longer profitable because of the high Yen-to-dollar exchange rate. Declining sales might not help, either: Fit, Insight, and CR-Z sales were all down through the first five months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011. To help turn things around, Honda recently announced it will source the U.S.-market Fit hatchback from Mexico starting in 2014. Though it doesn’t appear the current-generation Fit will get engine stop/start tech, should Honda consider adding it for the redesigned U.S.-spec subcompact model? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Source;
http://wot.motortrend.com/euro-spec-honda-fit-now-offers-engine-stopstart-technology-should-it-come-here-217601.html

Designers aim to get Honda back in sync with the times

Honda split up design authority to make Yoshinori Asahi, left, head of interiors and Toshinobu Minami head of exteriors.

Photo credit: HANS GREIMEL

WAKO, Japan -- In recent years, designers at Honda Motor Co. have zigged as the market zagged.
Now it is the task of two young stylists, abruptly promoted last September, to get Honda in sync with the times.

Toshinobu Minami, a young up-and-comer who penned the latest NSX concept, was tapped to lead global exterior design.

Yoshinori Asahi, a stylist with a penchant for American muscle cars, got the job as worldwide head of interiors.

The duo agree on one thing: Honda overestimated the impact of the global financial crisis and misjudged consumer tastes. The company's top market forecasters had bet that customers would put a new premium on fuel-efficient, no-frills cars.

Enthusiasm for fuel efficiency didn't fade. But customers flocked instead to cars sporting upscale features and bold, emotional styling. Upstart brands such as Hyundai and Kia began offering high trim and affordable prices.

"Against that, maybe our minimalist, efficiency-based focus of style may have had a bit of a gap with what the times were dictating," Asahi, 48, said during a recent interview of the two stylists at Honda's global design center just outside Tokyo.

He added: "We thought people would go for more simple things after the financial crisis."

Now Minami and Asahi concede that Honda thought wrong.

The two are working on a new design language under the banner "Exciting H Design," which should debut in full for the 2016 model year. Elements are seen in the following concepts:
-- The Honda AC-X hybrid touring sedan
-- The Honda Micro Commuter electric city runabout
-- The Honda EV-ster open-cockpit roadster
-- The Acura NSX sports car

Styling points will include a grille-headlight combination that runs together in what Minami, 44, calls the Solid Wing Face.

Sheet-metal treatment also will get more sophisticated, with a richer blend of hidden and exposed surfaces, Minami said.

Inside the cabin, Honda will prioritize eye-catching man-machine interface, dials and displays and will pack its cars with more telecommunications connectivity and safety features.

Honda's designers are too reliant on computers and driven by number and calculations, Minami complained. Now they will depend more on their five senses -- climbing into mock cockpits to assess roominess instead of blindly adhering to preset dimensions in computer models.

"We don't want to lose the clean dynamism that we always had. But we want to add more flavor," Minami said.

In recent years, younger stylists have grown frustrated with Honda's less-is-more look, the new bosses said.
But changing that mind-set will still take some nudging.

"Designers tend to get more conservative as they work from their initial ideas to the final drawing. They try to be safe," Asahi noted. "It takes courage for them to show what they think is their true design. We need to give them that courage."

Honda's new designing duo

YOSHINORI ASAHI
Title: Creative director, interior design
Age: 48
Family: Married with 3 sons
Notable interior work: Honda S2000, 7th-generation Honda Accord
Hobbies: Ukulele, keyboard
Favorite cars: Ford GT40 and American muscle cars from '60s and '70s
In his garage: Black Honda Fit
Favorite food: Sushi
First paying job: McDonald's

TOSHINOBU MINAMI
Title: Creative director, exterior design
Age: 44
Family: Married with son and daughter
Notable exterior work: 2nd-generation Acura RL, 3rd-generation Acura TL
Hobbies: Diving, cooking
Favorite food: Italian food and wine
In his garage: Silver Honda Stream wagon
Favorite cars: Citroen DS, Acura NSX, Ferrari 250 LM
First paying job: Construction work

Source;

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120611/OEM03/306119996#ixzz1xUZMuqC8Read

At Honda, one tough turnaround

TOKYO -- Takanobu Ito took the helm of a teetering Honda Motor Co. in June 2009 with a curious mixture of pride and angst.

The global financial storm was bearing down hard. And his predecessor, Takeo Fukui, was ruthlessly slashing costs and gutting some of Honda's most promising programs, including the V-8 Acura and NSX sports car, to keep the company in the black.

"Feeling honored was 47 percent of my reaction," President Ito recalled of being tapped for the top job. "Thinking 'this is going to be very tough' was about 53 percent."

Indeed, for most of his tenure, Ito has struggled to right the ship.

But now, after three years in office, the blunt-talking executive who joined Honda because he wanted to work on motorcycles and airplanes is ready to put his recovery plan into action. Sweeping revival plans that he has quietly been slipping into place are taking hold.

The overhauls encompass everything from product planning and design to technology. Ito hopes they will not only recoup lost momentum but deliver record growth.

Little did he know in 2009 how tough the turnaround would be. The yen's climb to record-high, profit-eating exchange rates and then last year's double-punch of natural disasters hammered Honda hard.

And, worse, a company long praised for fleet-footed innovation was flat-footed on new product. Customers and critics snubbed nameplates such as the Honda Insight and CR-Z -- even the once-bulletproof Civic small car. Signs of big-company disease crept in; Honda was chasing numbers but had a tin ear for the market -- something even company leaders admit.

Honda had lost its mojo, and Ito knew it.

"I understand when people say that Honda had not been doing very much for two-and-a-half, three years," Ito, 58, said in a recent interview. "When people looked at it from the outside, they found it difficult to understand what was happening."

Yet behind the public facade of inaction, Ito was busy building a comeback strategy.

Hallmarks of his handiwork:
-- An overhaul of the company's entire drivetrain technology.
-- Global restructuring of product development.
-- New blood in design.
-- Streamlined management aimed at faster decision making.

This fall's high-stakes launch of the redesigned Honda Accord sedan -- marking the U.S. debut of the new powertrain -- will test Ito's efforts.

More changes will follow, including a next-generation Honda Fit small car arriving next year. The Fit will be produced through the company's radically new regionalized product development process. Also in the works is a new design language aimed at spicing up traditionally staid styling.

Motorcycle commuter

Ito took the helm at age 55, relatively young for a Japanese CEO. He was tapped by Fukui, then 64, as a hard-charging, think-outside-the-box upstart from a fresh generation. When asked to describe Ito during a press conference at the handover, Fukui said, "In a word, I would say 'tough.'" A hands-on type known to commute to work on his Honda CB1100 motorbike, Ito likes to be in charge. When becoming president, he famously took on another role as head of Honda's development subsidiary, Honda R&D Co. He has since given up that duty, but it was his second time in that post, speaking to his penchant for being in control. But Honda has a hard climb ahead. It will take several years for the changes to appear in the entire lineup and trickle through the whole company. Meanwhile, rivals have capitalized on Honda's slump to steal U.S. sales and market share, leaving Honda in catch-up mode.

'Losing the brilliance'

"Honda was getting this reputation that we were losing the brilliance we used to have. And that's something we were starting to feel ourselves," says Toshinobu Minami, the new global head of exterior design appointed by Ito in September.

"The company has gotten so large, we were only pursuing efficiency. And probably during that time, we came to lose the uniqueness that the market came to expect from us," he says. "We probably started just thinking, 'Oh, this should do,' and stopped setting high targets or goals for ourselves."

Indeed, Honda's obsession with size manifested itself in the company's monthly sales and production reports. They invariably were headlined: "Honda sets all-time record for auto production."

Chasing record output was a key internal benchmark. So was maintaining healthy profits despite repeated financial blows.

Honda has never suffered a full-year loss, operating or net. But extreme cost-cutting was needed to stay in the black. That led Honda to kill the NSX, quit Formula One racing, cut jobs at home and abroad, drop plans for a minicar factory in Japan and go no-frills on interior design.

New global interior design chief Yoshinori Asahi linked the financial crisis to compromises in the "sense of quality or perceived quality" on Honda vehicles.

"That's what took shape in those criticisms from Consumers Reports," he says, referring to the influential U.S. magazine's decision last year to leave the Civic off its list of "recommended" vehicles for the first time in more than a decade.

Tech quest

Yet despite tight purse strings, Ito re-invested in new technology -- especially drivetrain technologies -- to compensate for Honda's lackluster hybrid system and to match the cutting-edge fuel-injection engines offered by rivals.

"We had to improve the fuel economy of our cars," Ito said. "I immediately began laying the preparations necessary to achieve this. We tried to innovate our engines and transmissions while also coming out with a fuller lineup of hybrid models."

What ensued was a suite of six new engines, three transmissions and two hybrid systems known collectively as Earth Dreams. The common thread is the addition of fuel-injection technology and continuously variable transmissions. A 1.6-liter diesel engine is also part of the mix, though there are no plans to bring that to the United States. The goal: to achieve industry-topping fuel efficiency in every vehicle class in three years.

Honda CFO Fumihiko Ike recalled that dropping Formula One racing was a key move in developing the Earth Dreams powertrains: "Previously we allocated between 600 to 800 people for Formula One racing. All those people are now involved with regular r&d."

Ito unveiled the technologies before last year's Tokyo Motor Show. The first U.S. car with the new powertrain, a direct-injection engine mated to a newly developed continuously variable transmission, will be the redesigned Accord.

Ito compares the impact of Earth Dreams to that of the famed CVCC engine project from the 1970s that cemented Honda's image as an engine company first and foremost.

"In talking about the impact on our business, it is as important as CVCC," Ito said. "This is very, very big."

R&D rethink

Yet Earth Dreams is only one piece of the plan.

Ito also blew up the company's traditional Japan-led product development strategy. The new approach empowers regional engineers to tailor cars to local tastes and local procurement.

Global nameplates will be developed in parallel at r&d centers in six operational regions -- Japan, North America, China, Asia-Pacific, South America and Europe. The cars will share certain main components such as engines and bodies, but other parts will differ according to local specifications and regional procurement possibilities.

The first car getting this treatment is the third-generation Fit due next year.

To speed localization, Ito in February named Erik Berkman head of Honda R&D Americas, leading design and product development. He is the first non-Japanese executive in the post.

Ito also entrusted the United States with the production and some development responsibilities for the Acura NSX sports car. Ito, who worked on the original all-aluminum NSX that went on sale in 1990, resurrected the car to inject more excitement into the brand. He picked Ohio as the production site because North America is expected to be its biggest market.

Design do-over

Ito turned next to design, a nagging sore spot. The Acura brand had yet to latch on to an inspiring look, and the interior of the latest Civic was panned as plasticky.

Last September, Ito moved aside Nobuki Ebisawa, 58, after seven years as global design chief to inject younger blood.

Enter Minami, 44, and new interior design chief Asahi, who quickly shook things up.

Work that had previously been handled solely by Ebisawa was split in three. Minami handles exterior design; Asahi, now 48, gets the interior -- and both are freed from matters of budgets, personnel and materials. An administrator now does that.

"The idea is to have an emphasis on speed so we can make quick decisions and reactions," Minami says.
Another big change: No more design evaluation meetings.

The new design chiefs banned them. Instead, Minami and Asahi patrol the studios and make executive decisions on the fly about which sketches should be kicked upstairs to Ito.

"We just said, 'OK, evaluation meetings and report presentation meetings are prohibited,'" Asahi recalls. "You have to prepare so much presentation materials. It was a waste of time."

The two are now working on more expressive design language for Honda and Acura that will debut in full for the 2016 model year. Hints of the more edgy look can be seen in the NSX concept shown at January's Detroit auto show and the sleek Honda AC-X hybrid sedan concept shown at last year's Tokyo show.

Less red tape, more sales?

Outside design, Ito has also tried to cut red tape.

In April 2011, he eliminated a management layer between him and the division chiefs. Now Ito himself is in direct control of Honda's automobile division as its COO, with direct reports from only three unit heads, instead of five.

Ito's overhaul is still a work in progress. The first Earth Dreams technologies reach the market this year only in some models, and the new design language will debut even later.

Despite the benefits of the Earth Dreams drivetrains, the fuel injection and CVT systems are less a leapfrog ahead of the competition than a move to keep pace.

It is also unclear how either will be received. In the past, Honda trumpeted the integrated motor-assist mild hybrid system used in the Insight, CR-Z and Civic hybrids as a game-changer, only to lose the first round of the hybrid battle to Toyota and its Prius.

But Honda has key strengths, too.

It was the first Japanese automaker producing cars in the United States -- at its Marysville, Ohio, factory in 1982. Honda has relatively low exposure to auto exports from Japan. Exports account for only 9 percent of Honda's global sales, far less than at Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda or Mitsubishi.

As a pioneer in localization, Honda has a deep bench of overseas engineering talent from which to draw.

And it is buoyed by solid earnings in its motorcycle business

Ito's revival plan was delayed by a year; Honda lost most of 2011 rebuilding from the devastating earthquake in Japan and the massive flooding in Thailand.

Now, Ito vows that 2012 is the turning point.

Indeed, despite the unflattering reviews of the latest Civic, the car has been selling well in the United States, racking up its best May sales since 2008. It was the No. 2 selling U.S. car in May and is the third-best seller for the first five months of 2012.

What's more, Honda ranked No. 1 in perceived quality among volume brands in the spring quality survey by ALG, the TrueCar Inc. subsidiary that sets residual values for the auto industry. It has held that spot since 2010.

Insiders say Ito also may unveil a midterm business plan, Honda's first since 2010. Confident that his fixes are taking hold, Ito is forecasting a return to sustainable growth with record global sales of 4.3 million units this fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2013.

"At Honda we need to grow and want to grow," Ito said. "Honda has never recorded global automobile sales exceeding 4 million units. But in the next fiscal year, we definitely want to do that and expand from there."

Source;

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120611/OEM02/306119994#ixzz1xUY1X0Ja

Honda is always one step ahead

Very interesting article, very thoughtful take on Honda....

By Mathieu St-Pierre of www.autos123.com

Thursday, June 07, 2012

And it turns out that this is a terrible thing. I’ve written a few times on Honda and Acura in the last little while, more so than Honda even knows...

I’m back on the subject because I recently returned an Insight and I was frustrated. This car is an unknown automotive gem that deserves to be experienced. Sure, the car is boring overall, but the product is simply amazing.

For $22,000, you get a 5-seater with a decent trunk that consumes no more fuel than a smart fortwo. Be warned, I’m a huge fan of the smart and one of the rare auto journos that doesn’t complain about the transmission. I bring this up because the Insight is a normal car that requires neither adjustment period nor any measure of lifestyle-altering compromises.

That’s it for the Insight as my review will soon be published. But as with the Insight, Honda has often been far ahead of the curve. The examples are numerous, but the ones that stick out the most are the ex-turbocharged RDX, the first-gen Honda Insight, the CR-Z, and the Fit and a few others. For every fail, there have obviously been numerous hits including the MDX and CR-V.

Honda’s ahead because they have a sixth sense when it comes to future products, but they’re always a generation too soon. The RDX is a perfect example where everyone is going turbo while Honda’s been there, done that, and has returned to a normally aspirated powertrain. The old RDX would have taken off in 2013-14; instead, it labored on from 2007 to 2012. Sad.

This situation has made me come up with the following:

In my career, I’ve never met anyone who hates Honda. Even back in my pre-career vdub days, the guys in my entourage recognized the value and merit of Honda engineering.

The only people that seem to dislike Honda are… Honda.

Why do they put so much R&D effort into cars and utility vehicles only to leave them rot by the wayside in dealerships? The Insight is $4,000 less than a Prius and consumes roughly the same. If the idea is to promote savings at the pumps and in wallets, why would Honda not promote their car?

What about the Fit? Same thing, more or less. I suspect this may change in the near future now that the car is made in China, but the fact is that the Fit has always been an excellent car! I’d pick one over a Civic any day. When was the last time you saw an ad on the Fit?

It’s time for Honda to be proud of its other products. I swear that if ad agencies pulled Civic and CR-V ads from every media, Honda would all but disappear.

There are other manufactures that promote only one or two of their products, but the reasoning behind the decision has more to do with the product itself…

Honda: Consider this a friendly nudge.

End of rant.  

Source;

http://www.auto123.com/en/news/honda-is-always-one-step-ahead?artid=144339

What Honda’s Home Means for Builders

For years, homebuilders have grappled with how much and what types of technology to put into homes. With home-automation products continuing to evolve very rapidly, it can become difficult to determine what exactly to do with technology. But for many builders looking out to the horizon at concept homes can help determine what the future holds.

What will the connected home of the future look like? The next-generation home will be able to reduce emissions on an ongoing basis, and manage and generate consumption on its own.

Or at least this is what Honda Motor Co., www.honda.com, Minato, Tokyo, is testing in its new HSHS (Honda Smart Home System), which it unveiled last week. Honda has built two test homes in Saitama, Japan for single-family use, and plans to build a third in the same location. The homes will be linked for demonstration and testing, which will continue through 2018.

What makes these homes unique? The models run on a combination of gas, solar power, and a rechargeable battery. The Smart e Mix Manager obtains operation data from the various energy devices—a gas-engine cogeneration unit, a thin-film solar cell module, and a home battery unit—and analyzes household energy use. From there, the system can make decisions to optimize efficiency. Homeowners can also choose to remotely operate the data from an in-home display, a vehicle-navigation system, or a smartphone.

The combination of the development of solar cell panels and gas-engine cogeneration units even provide the means to keep energy for the home in case of a power outage.

The demonstration home also minimizes emissions based on data; optimizes the electricity supplied from the grid; and aims to reduce the load on public infrastructure by studying a “vehicle-to-home” system to plug-in hybrid cars and electric vehicles. In the end, the energy-management system provides a backup supply of electricity while reducing emissions from the home.

Honda’s home of the future additionally provides notifications when visitors arrive or if lights or air conditioning are left on; remote control of appliances; and the ability to run hot water for a bath or lock a door from outside a home.

Honda’s test home isn’t necessarily coming to market anytime soon, but the connected-home technology that it is creating to manage and monitor homes and energy consumption isn’t a far cry from the systems that are already available.

Today connected homes are within reach. Recent research shows more than 8% of households in the United States will own at least one smart-home product or service by the end of the year, and the market will continue to grow from $7.6 billion in 2012 to $24.3 billion in 2017, reports Strategy Analytics, www.strategyanalytics.com, Newton Centre, Mass.

For builders, the key takeaway is homes are only going to get ‘smarter’ and ‘greener’ due to the increased use of technology in the home. Looking at concepts of the future can help builders gauge what is coming next. Are you interested in learning more about how you can bring automation to homes you are building—or simply what this trend means going forward? Check out the Welcome Home panel at this year’s Connected World Conference, June 11-13.

Source;
http://www.constructech.com/news/articles/article.aspx?article_id=9251&SECTION=1

Honda Breaks Ranks to Secure China's Huge Potential Ecocar Market--Will Transfer Proprietary HV Technology

A key theme—and contention–of “Whither Japan” is that Japan’s future is inevitably and also beneficially one of increasing economic, political, and even social integration within an Asian region dominated by China. Nothing illustrates this theme more tellingly than Japanese corporations’ growing investments in manufacturing plants in neighboring Asian countries, particularly China, and, above all, transfers of strategically vital, leading-edge proprietary technologies to these operations.

For news of one such transfer we need only open today’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun and read an article about Honda Motor Corporation (NYSE: HMC). The article, datelined Beijing, reports that Honda has decided to transfer its basic hybrid vehicle (HV) technology, not just to its joint-venture partner Dong Feng Motors, but also to other China auto manufacturers.

Honda is seeking to stake out a dominant position—ahead of U.S. and European competitors–in what it forecasts to be a huge future market, perhaps the world’s largest market, for environmentally-friendly “ecocars.”

This is a bold, probably unprecedented, move, certain to excite high anxiety and criticism within Japan. Hesitation and restraint by Japanese corporations toward investing in China, of promoting Chinese to senior management positions in Chinese subsidiaries—and even of hiring or training Chinese staff in Japan– has been due to fears of theft and copying of the corporation’s key proprietary technologies. What Honda’s move demonstrates is that what has become accepted as inevitable in other industries is no longer avoidable in the automobile industry, i.e., that a strictly defensive strategy in technology transfers is unlikely to succeed, and even if successful offers limited upside return potential.

In this judgment, and in its “must-win” assessment of the China market, Honda is not alone among Japanese auto majors. Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) has plans to assemble hybrid vehicles and to make batteries and other critical HV components in China that will indigenize production.
Here we see two of the world’s leading makers of ecocars making major, strategic commitments to the China market involving unprecedented leading edge technology transfer. Not to be missed is the assessment that China, rather than the U.S., Japan, or Europe is likely to become the largest and most dynamic ecocar market in the world, and to achieve this distinction faster than anywhere else.

All three Japanese auto makers are already major players in China as the cart to the left (from the April 22 Nikkei article) shows. In the top panel we see Nissan having pulled ahead of Toyota, selling almost one million units last year, while Honda’s sales were flat YOY at about 600,000 units. The bottom panel show total world unit auto sales and the growing share of China. Domestic sales in China last year: 18,510,000 units, up 2.5 percent YOY.

Honda’s proprietary HV technology, called IMA, packages an electric motor and battery that boost start up and acceleration of a gasoline engine. The motor and battery are easily retrofitted onto a gasoline engine car, and are being so installed in Civic and Accord sedans, as well as the Fit minicar. These HV models have sold an aggregate 800,000 units in the U.S. and Europe.

They were all manufactured in Japan. This year there will be a new Honda HV model emerging from China. And not just a new model of cars, but a new model of integrating business between Japan and China, this year and for the future.

Source;
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenharner/2012/04/22/honda-breaks-ranks-to-secure-chinas-huge-potential-ecocar-market-will-transfer-proprietary-hv-technology/

Honda gives rare look at R&D center taking on big project under new leader

RAYMOND, Ohio — A mile from a rural highway and past several levels of security is the Honda complex that does some of the heavy lifting — and much of the heavy thinking — for the automaker’s operations throughout North America.

Unlike the Honda assembly plants in Marysville and East Liberty, Honda R&D Americas in Raymond does not give tours to the public. It keeps such a low profile that even its employee count was once a secret.

That began to change in January, when Honda’s top executive announced that the Ohio research center would be in charge of developing a new “supercar,” the Acura NSX. The sports car will be built at a yet-to-be announced location in Ohio.

In light of the center’s highly publicized role with the NSX and other models, company officials opened its doors to The Dispatch for a rare look inside.

The lobby is adorned with 314 plaques representing the patents that Honda obtained based on work at the center.

“It’s like a developmental Petri dish,” said Frank Paluch, senior vice president of automobile development. “We can try new things.”

Automakers tend to do their most-sophisticated research close to their home base, which for Honda is in Japan. Honda is unusual in sending a complicated project so far away.

“It’s a testament to the competence that (the Raymond office) has,” said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific, a research firm in Tustin, Calif.

The heart of the complex is a design room as large as four football fields and filled with hundreds of cubicles for designers and engineers. It’s separated into departments that handle specific aspects of vehicle design.

Everyone is dressed in the Honda uniform: white pants and a long-sleeved white shirt with the person’s first name ironed onto the left breast. This includes the division’s president, whose desk is out in the open with everyone else’s.

Starting on Monday, the new president will be Erik Berkman. Before him, every top executive in the history of the research division came from Honda in Japan. Berkman joined the company in 1982 as an engineer in Marysville. His promotion might signal a growing role for the executives who have spent their careers in North America.

Berkman will oversee a Raymond office that has about 1,300 employees, most of them engineers; 200 more engineers are to be hired in the next few years.

The head count makes this the largest facility of its type in the Americas operated by a foreign-based company. The closest parallel is probably Toyota’s center in Ann Arbor, Mich., which has 1,100 employees.

Honda R&D also has 12 smaller offices in the Americas.

On the levels below the design floor in Raymond, workers make prototype versions of the vehicles and then test them. In this way, the complex is like a miniature assembly plant.
Several of the labs look like sets from a science-fiction movie.

This includes a chamber the size of a small gymnasium whose walls are covered with white foam squares. The walls block out all outside electromagnetic signals, such as those from cellphones, television and radio. In this space, researchers measure the level of electromagnetic activity coming from a vehicle, and they test how it responds when bombarded with intense levels of radio waves.

Elsewhere in the complex, employees maintain a room full of crash-test dummies (officially, they’re called “anthropomorphic test devices”) built to look like women, men and children of various sizes and shapes. Each dummy wears black dress shoes that look as if they came from a thrift store.

The main crash-test space is a long corridor with a slab at one end. Before a crash, workers put on safety glasses and stand behind a series of clear plastic barriers.

“Blink, and you’ll miss it,” one said.

In less than a second, an Odyssey minivan streaks across the room and smacks head-on into the slab. The front crumples, but the rest is almost completely undamaged. Employees wait for a moment and then gather around the wreck to take readings. The room smells like charred nylon, which comes from the material that deploys the airbags.

“Odds are that the occupant would get up and walk out of the car,” said Chuck Thomas, chief engineer for vehicle safety.

Across the hall is a smaller crash-test site that simulates different impact angles. Unlike the main test area, this one doesn’t use whole vehicles. It studies the parts, such as seats and dash components, which get placed in the frame of a vehicle.

The center started in 1991 with a suite of offices that is now the far corner of the complex. At that time, most of the work involved making derivatives of existing models, such as the Accord wagon, which had most of the same components as the Accord sedan.

That changed in 2001 when the office did almost all the development work for the Acura MDX, a completely new model. The center also led the way on the Pilot SUV, the Ridgeline pickup truck and the 2011 redesign of the Odyssey minivan. Of the 18 Honda or Acura models in the current lineup, six were developed at the Raymond office, representing 25 percent of sales.

The NSX is not designed to be a big seller, but it might be the most eagerly awaited vehicle to come out of the center, said Peterson of AutoPacific. The original NSX sold from 1990 to 2005. With a sticker price of about $90,000, the vehicle was a showpiece; sales never topped 2,000 in a year.

The new version will be a gas-electric hybrid, adding another level of complexity to a difficult assignment.

Honda’s CEO, Takanobu Ito, unveiled a preliminary version of the NSX in January, which was when he said the model will be developed and assembled in Ohio.

Paluch, senior vice president at the Honda research center, saw the comments as an affirmation and a challenge.

“Basically, the statement Mr. Ito made is that Honda has grown up its R&D worldwide enough to build a flagship vehicle,” he said.

Source;
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2012/04/01/engine-of-design.html

Don't call it a Comeback....

Honda Putting No. 2 Executive in U.S. in Localization Drive

Honda plans to post its second-highest ranking global executive in the U.S. for the first time as the automaker that was Japan’s first to build cars in the market extends a three-decade localization push.

Tetsuo Iwamura, 60, Honda’s chief operating officer for North America, on April 1 adds the titles of executive vice president and executive officer, the Tokyo-based company said today in a statement. Iwamura is to also join Honda’s board in late June, pending shareholder approval, the company said.

Iwamura will continue to run operations in North America while assisting President Takanobu Ito in managing global sales, said Jun Odajima, a company spokesman. “This is the first time the top North American executive has also been the No. 2 company official,” he said.

The promotion of Iwamura and naming of Erik Berkman to lead Honda’s U.S. research and development unit, the first time that job has gone to a non-Japanese engineer, come as the company lifts production across North America, its biggest source of revenue, to counter a rising yen. Honda is increasing vehicle output at plants in the U.S. and Canada, adding a factory in Mexico to build subcompacts and preparing to make the Acura NSX supercar in Ohio by 2014.

Berkman, currently vice president of corporate planning and logistics for U.S. auto operations, is to become president of Honda R&D Americas on April 1, the company said.

Honda’s U.S. headquarters are in Torrance, California. The company’s American depositary receipts rose 1.3 percent to $37.28 at the close in New York.

Source;
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-22/honda-putting-no-2-global-manager-in-u-s-in-localization-drive.html

New Honda Civic awarded 5 stars by Euro NCAP

The new Honda Civic has been awarded Euro NCAP's maximum 5-star rating, following publication of the safety body's independent crash testing results.
In addition, Euro NCAP have announced that they are extending Honda's Euro NCAP Advanced reward for its Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) technology to include the new Civic.

The rating scheme focuses on the vehicle's overall safety performance which gives consumers an easy to understand single score. The system considers occupant protection, child protection, pedestrian protection and the availability of driver aids. Since the introduction of Euro NCAP's new rating scheme in February 2009, all Honda models tested have achieved 5-stars.

Euro NCAP also announced that they are extending Honda's Advanced NCAP reward for its CMBS technology to include the new Civic. The reward recognises Honda's CMBS technology as amongst the best available safety innovations, offering proven benefits. Euro NCAP Advanced is an initiative developed in response to the rapid development of new safety technologies, for which there is no independent assessment.

Honda's Collision Mitigation Brake System (CMBS) is a radar-based autonomous emergency braking system designed to help prevent collisions with vehicles which are stationary or travelling in the same direction. The system is aimed at alerting the driver to an imminent collision both at low speeds, typical of urban driving, and at higher speeds typical of rural roads and motorways. By studying accident statistics in Germany and extending the figures to the broader European community, Honda estimates that, if all cars were fitted with CMBS, between 200,000 and 250,000 accidents could be either prevented or mitigated every year.

Honda uses its own car-to-car crash test facility at the Tochigi R&D centre allows the Japanese manufacturer to analyse impacts between models of different sizes and weights and develops solutions to mitigate injuries for both passengers and pedestrians. The omni-directional vehicle-to-vehicle crash test facility opened in 2001 and is the world's first indoor facility of its type.

Source;
http://www.newcarnet.co.uk/Honda_news.html?id=11913

Honda back in the innovation game

By Richard Russell @ Globe and Mail

Although Honda built its reputation in engineering and innovation, in recent years it has strayed from that path – there have been no new engines, transmissions, hybrid, electric or plug-in systems in an era when the competition is bombarding us with new thinking.

Honda Motor president and CEO Takanobu Ito admits the company has had trouble. “The real challenge facing car companies around the world is the speed at which change is taking place. To be honest, we have not been able to keep up as well as we’d like.”

He also heads up Honda R&D and in that role says his first task as president is to push for advanced technologies, advances that will put Honda ahead of the pack in the fields of batteries, hybrids and fuel cells while working on further efficiencies with the internal combustion engine. “We’re hard at work on all of these at once,” he said recently.

The previous day, at the company’s R&D centre in Motegi, 125 km north of Tokyo near the area decimated by the March earthquake and tsunami, we had sampled a steady stream of new innovations that will find their way into an array of new vehicles in the next couple of years.

We drove a variety of new and future vehicles powered by a completely new family of four- and six-cylinder engines. We tried several new transmissions, a truly innovative all-wheel-drive system, various hybrids including one without a transmission, pure electric vehicles and a sleek sedan powered by a fuel cell.

On the engine front, a unique combination of variable valve-timing, twin camshafts and direct injection has been developed allowing engines to run on the fuel-savings Atkinson Cycle without the loss of power or torque previously associated with that method. These include a quartet of new four-cylinder gasoline engines ranging in displacement from 1.0 to 2.4 litres and a new 3.5-litre V6. The new 2.4-litre will first appear in the next Accord, late in 2012, and perhaps the new CR-V shortly afterward.

We drove vehicles powered by a new 148-horsepower, 1.8-litre four that would be right at home in a mid-cycle version of the new Civic being readied for the 2013 model year and a 127-horsepower, 1.5-litre four destined for the Fit. In all cases, these preliminary power figures are on the conservative side but considerably higher than current engines of similar displacement, while consuming 10 per cent less fuel. We also sampled a Civic powered by a potent little 1.6-litre turbo diesel.

Honda engineers have developed a trio of new continuously variable transmissions for small and mid-sized cars. On road and track they exhibited less of the “motor-boating” and “rubber-band” effects associated with CVT transmissions. Only when pressed hard on the track did they assume the CVT propensity to sound like a clutch was slipping.

Honda has also come up with a seven-speed dual clutch gearbox for higher power applications.
All of these engines and transmission will appear in standalone or hybrid applications across a wide range of vehicles of all sizes and shapes in the next two years.

Honda also showed off what it says is the world’s most efficient two-motor hybrid system, one that allows a big family-size car to operate without a transmission with a resulting saving in space and cost. Headed for the North American market next year in the next-generation Accord, it can run on electric or gasoline power or a combination of the two.

The main electric motor produces 221 lb-ft of torque and is used to launch the car, which can run for up to 24 km on battery power alone. The second electric motor is used as a generator to recharge the batteries. At highway speeds, the electric motor drops out and a 134-horsepower gasoline engine takes over.

The IC engine also comes into use to drive the generator and keep the batteries charged, much like the Chevrolet Volt. With the big electric motor able to get the car to cruising speed there is no need for a transmission.

The company also turned us loose on the big oval of the adjacent Twin-Ring Motegi racetrack in an Accord-size sedan equipped with the new V-6 sending 310 horsepower and 265 lb-ft of torque to the front wheels through the seven-speed DSG gearbox and a pair of 27-horsepower electric motors powering the rear wheels.

In addition to the abundance of instant torque when accelerating, one motor is programmed to send more power to the outside wheel in a corner while the other applies negative torque to the inside wheel.

Off-the-line performance can be silent and seamless with the twin electric motors providing the go – or is truly impressive if you get into the throttle and add the V-6 to the equation. Turn-in is exemplary and transient response exceptional thanks to the rear wheels being used to pull the car into the turn. Add to this the ability to get on the power earlier when existing the corner and you’ve got a true sports sedan.

Look for this combination in a forthcoming replacement for the big Acura RL sedan and the replacement for the NSX sports car.

Source;
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/new-cars/auto-news/honda-back-in-the-innovation-game/article2287398/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2287398

Honda plans to make lighter vehicles - Nikkei

Dec 24 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co plans to adopt new design and assembly methods to make its vehicles lighter, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Some of Honda's new manufacturing methods involve welding outer panels to the frame, rather than assembling the ceiling, side and other panels, to reduce the use of bolts and reinforcing materials, the Japanese newspaper said.

Honda plans to spend tens of billions of yen to revamp production lines in Japan and overseas, using the new methods on small vehicles initially, then on all models within several years, the Nikkei said.

The automaker has begun steps to scale back on materials, parts and processing steps for producing its minivehicle, the N Box, which was launched last Friday, the daily said.

Honda modified one of the two production lines that assemble the N Box at its Suzuka plant in Mie Prefecture, the Nikkei said. The move will help make the N Box 10 percent lighter and lower manufacturing costs, the paper added.

By making lighter and cheaper automobiles, the carmaker aims to fast track its advance into emerging markets, which is one of its top priorities, the newspaper said.

Source;
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/23/honda-idUSL3E7NN2XB20111223

Honda Jazz (FIT) EV

by Graham Hope
The Honda Jazz has always been a pioneer, and now it’s blazing a new trail in all-electric guise. It was one of the first supermini-MPVs when it was introduced a decade ago, and now finds itself at the cutting edge of technology, with an electric version to be launched in Japan and America next year. This will be badged the Fit, and will initially arrive in California and Oregon before being rolled out to six east coast US states in 2013.

The blanked-off nose distinguishes the model from the standard Jazz, plus our car features Fit EV livery. It also gets new five-spoke alloys, while a unique blue paintjob is available in the US.
Under the floor is a lithium-ion battery pack with a capacity of 20 kilowatt-hours (less than the Nissan Leaf’s 24kWh). The maximum output is 100 kilowatts. The 92kW coaxial electric motor, meanwhile, is derived from the hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity.

Inside, the most obvious additions are the buttons which let you choose which mode to drive in: Normal, Econ and Sport, as seen on the CR-Z.

As with all EVs, what stands out most is the silence at start-up. And with all the power available from a standstill, the car gets off the mark quickly.

Econ, as the name suggests, offers the most energy-efficient driving, with Sport optimistically claiming to deliver “exhilarating performance”. That’s pushing things somewhat, but there is a tangible difference between the modes: in Sport the drive is surprisingly fun, and claimed performance is on par with that of a 2.0-litre engine.

At low city speeds, the EV is very nippy and guaranteed to cause a few surprises when pulling away from the lights. Ride quality is similar to that of the standard model, though, so it doesn’t take much for the little Honda to get unsettled.

Do the numbers stack up? The US version of the Jazz claims a range of 76 miles in combined city and motorway use, or 123 miles in town alone, with the battery taking three hours to fully recharge when connected to a standard 240V socket.

Will the car come here? Honda bosses remain tight-lipped, but if this happens it won’t be for another three years at least. They do recognise, though, that one thing an electric Jazz would have in its favour is a familiar badge – they believe this would encourage sales.

Source;
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/firstdrives/276067/honda_jazz_ev.html

Honda creates electric brakes

By Edwin Kee

Honda might have stumbled upon an important discovery in the world of motoring – by working on an electric-powered brake which will control the hydraulic pressure of its master cylinder using nothing but a ball screw. Whenever the driver steps on the brake pedal, a reaction force can be felt thanks to a simulator, where said reaction force from the master cylinder is not applied to the pedal. Touted to be the first “fully-electric-powered brake” in the world which will separate the pedal and the brake completely, Honda has plans to introduce this new brake into their compact electric vehicle (EV) and plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) which are on track to roll out sometime next year.

What are some of the benefits of an electric-powered brake? For starters, it is now possible for you to finely control braking, never mind how much force you apply on the pedal with your foot. This translates to electricity being regenerated by using a motor of an EV to help bring the vehicle to a stop, or at least to slow down. The amount of regenerated electricity can be increased by decreasing the brake’s contribution to the slowdown, and when placed side-by-side with existing brakes, the amount of regenerated electricity will see an increase of around 5%. Here’s to the future, Honda.

Source;

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/12/honda-electric-brakes/

Honda's new diesel engine unveiled (India not North America)

Considering the demand for diesel cars in India Honda's new 1.6 litre diesel engine is bound to come to our shores. Read on to know more

In 2003 Honda had developed a 2.2 litre i-CTDi four cylinder diesel engine for the Accord in Europe and America. The engine found its way under the hood of many other Honda models sold across various nations in the western world. Then in 2008 Honda introduced the i-DTEC version of the 2.2 litre diesel engine to meet Euro 5 emissions norms.

Now, Honda has revealed a downsized turbocharged version of the old 2.2 unit as a 1.6 litre common rail i-DTEC engine at the Tokyo Motor Show. Honda has used lots of aluminium in the engine and the new engine is bound to be very light. The four pot motor develops 120PS of power at 4000 rpm and 299Nm of torque at 2000 rpm. The engine is said to be fairly rev happy for a diesel like Mazda’s SKYACTIV 2.2 litre diesel engine and is also said to have good low end grunt.

Honda engineers say that they are working on a more powerful 160PS version of the 1.6 litre i-DTEC engine with 349Nm of torque that will replace the current 2.2 litre diesel unit in Europe.

As for India, the new 1.6 litre i-DTEC is bound to find its way under the hood of the Honda City which will help the mid-size Honda ramp up considerably in the sales department due to the demand for diesel cars in India. Also, a downsized version of the 1.6 litre i-DTEC engine should be on the cards for the Honda Jazz and Brio, which will help Honda gain a considerable chunk of the diesel hatchback market share in India.

Honda had confirmed their plans for a diesel power plant for India earlier this year when the Honda R&D Co (Automobile R&D Centre) Managing Officer, Chief Officer (Development Operations) Yasuhisa said, "We are aware of the petrol price increase in India but we consider that as a sign of growth in the Indian market... definitely we are currently developing diesel engine cars.” That comment has been cemented by the unveiling of the new 1.6 litre i-DTEC diesel engine.

Source;

http://www.zigwheels.com/news-features/news/hondas-new-diesel-engine-unveiled/10822/1

First Drive: Honda hosts at Research and Developement centre

By Richard Russell
MOTEGI, Japan – For a company with a reputation for innovation and engineering, Honda has been surprisingly quiet on those fronts in recent years. No new engines, transmissions, hybrid, electric or plug-in systems in an era when everyone else in the industry is rushing them into production.

In what could be called a comeback or a reaffirmation of what put the company on the map, Honda is about to unveil a steady stream of new innovations that will find their way into everything the company builds, from lawn mowers and leaf blowers to motorcycles and cars of all sizes and stripes.

As if apologizing for its recent lack of news on these fronts, Honda hosted media from around the globe at its R & D Center here. We were exposed to a dizzying array of new products and ideas, most of which will find their way into your local Honda store in the next couple of years.
We drove a variety of new and future vehicles powered by a completely new family of four and six cylinder engines. We tried several new transmissions, a truly innovative all-wheel-drive system, various hybrids, including one without a transmission, pure electric vehicles and a sleek sedan powered by a fuel cell.

Honda is back
On the engine front, look for a unique combination of variable valve-timing, twin camshafts and direct injection that allow engines to run on the fuel-savings Atkinson Cycle without the loss of power or torque previously associated with that method. These include a quartet of new four-cylinder gasoline engines ranging in displacement from 1.0 to 2.4 –litres and a new 3.5-litre V6. The new 2.4-litre will first appear in the next Accord, late in 2012 and perhaps the new CR-V shortly afterwards.

We drove vehicles powered by a new 148-horsepower, 1.8-litre four that would be right at home in a mid-cycle version of the new Civic being readied for the 2012 model year and a 127-horsepower, 1.5-litre four destined for the Fit. In all cases these preliminary power figures are on the conservative side but considerably higher than current engines of similar displacement, while consuming 10 per cent less fuel.

We also sampled a Civic powered by a potent little 1.6-litre turbo diesel. Bring it on!
Honda R&D has come up with a trio of new CVT (Continuously Variable Transmissions) for small and mid-sized cars. Development has led to less of the “motor-boating” and “rubber-band” effects associated with CVT transmissions. Driven under normal conditions they feel like a normal stepped automatic, only when pressed hard on the track did they assume the CVT propensity to sound like a clutch was slipping.

It has also developed a seven-speed dual clutch gearbox.

Under the “Earth Dreams” banner, all of these engines and transmission will appear in stand-alone or hybrid applications across a wide range of vehicles of all sizes and shapes in the next two years.

Honda has developed the world’s most efficient two-motor hybrid system, one that allows a big family-size car to operate without a transmission with a resultant savings in space and cost.
It also turned us loose on the big oval of the adjacent Twin-Ring Motegi race track in an Accord-size sedan equipped with the new V6 sending 310 horsepower and 265 lb. ft. of torque to the front wheels and a pair of electric motors powering the rear wheels. In addition to the abundance of instant torque when accelerating the innovation meter was pegged by the fact the motors were programmed to send more power to the outside wheel in a corner and reduced power to the inside wheel.

Needless to say performance was more than impressive on the straights or in the turns. Look for this combination in a forthcoming replacement for the big RL sedan and a rumored replacement for the NSX sports car.

Honda NSX for Detroit

The first clues to Honda’s long-awaited NSX successor will be unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show. The Japanese company has confirmed that a hybrid concept known internally as the Super Sports will appear at the US event at the start of January.

A mysterious Acura concept was spotted last month on the set of the new Avengers movie in Central Park, New York, alongsive the film's star, Robert Downey Jr. Honda refused to comment on the pictures, but it's though that this mid-engined roadster could be the car in question.

Should the model make production, as is anticipated, it is likely to go on sale by 2013. Honda even took the bold move of showing a fleeting image of a sleek, silhouetted image of the model at a technical presentation to journalists at its Motegi Twin Ring facility.R and D boss Yoshikazu Kigoshi said: “It will define the new face of Acura (Honda’s premium US brand).” But the car is set to go on sale worldwide, and it will wear the Honda badge in Europe and possibly even resurrect the revered NSX name.

An insider at the company admitted new boss Takanobu Ito had been stung into action after suggestions that a company once famed for its sporty cars and engineering expertise had lost its way in recent years. “This is the start of new direction for Honda,” he stressed. “We need a halo product.”

And chief operating officer of R and D Toshikiho Nonaka outlined the company’s agenda when he confirmed: “We are investigating a Super Sports car that pursues exhilarating fun.”

However, the new model will be in keeping with Honda’s Earth Dreams policy, which prioritises Fun, the Environment and Safety, and is likely to feature an electric motor as well as conventional power.

Other technology which could be used in the car is the firm’s new Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive system.

This torque control system transfers energy from inside wheels to outside wheels while cornering to maximize stability. Auto Express briefly tested it at the firm’s test track and found it delivered an extremely sporty drive, even in something the size of an Accord.

Nonaka acknowledged SH-AWD would be ideal for a new flagship performance model when he said: “We do have an understanding that lightweight, speedy, sporty vehicles are needed for this system.” President of Honda Motor Europe Manabu Nishimae added: “We know there are customers who want Honda sports cars and we are developing and intending to deliver products for them.”

Source;
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/motorshows/tokyo-motor-show/275806/honda_nsx_for_detroit.html

Honda Unveils All-new ASIMO with Significant Advancements

11/07/2011 - TOKYO, Japan
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. today unveiled an all-new ASIMO humanoid robot newly equipped with the world's first1 autonomous behavior control technology. With a further advance in autonomy, the all-new ASIMO can now continue moving without being controlled by an operator. Moreover, with significantly improved intelligence and the physical ability to adapt to situations, ASIMO took another step closer to practical use in an office or a public space where many people come and go.

1Honda internal research as of Nov. 8, 2011

Since the establishment of the company, Honda has continued to take on new challenges in the effort to create new products and advance technologies with the spirit of utilizing technology to help people. In the area of humanoid robot research, Honda has been developing and advancing the ASIMO humanoid robot to realize a dream to be useful for people and to help enrich people's daily lives.

Honda has a newly established collective name, Honda Robotics, to represent all of its robotics technologies and product applications created through its research and development of humanoid robots. While continuing the research and development of humanoid robots, Honda will also focus on applying robotics technologies to mass-produced products and putting product applications into practical use.

Based on this concept of Honda Robotics, Honda also introduced an experimental model of a task-performing robot arm that was developed while applying multi-joint simultaneous orbit control and posture control technologies amassed through the research and development of ASIMO. This robot arm can be remotely controlled to perform tasks in unstable places which are difficult for people to access.

All-new ASIMO
The all-new ASIMO is now advanced from an "automatic machine" to an "autonomous machine" with the decision-making capability to determine its behavior in concert with its surroundings such as movements of people. At the beginning of the development process, the following three factors were identified as necessary for a robot to perform as an autonomous machine, and the technologies required to realize these capabilities were developed;
1) high-level postural balancing capability which enables the robot to maintain its posture by putting out its leg in an instant,
2) external recognition capability which enables the robot to integrate information, such as movements of people around it, from multiple sensors and estimate the changes that are taking place, and
3) the capability to generate autonomous behavior which enables the robot to make predictions from gathered information and autonomously determine the next behavior without being controlled by an operator. With these capabilities, the all-new ASIMO takes another step closer to practical use in an environment where it coexists with people.

1. Advancement of intelligence capability
Honda has developed a new system that is a fundamental technology for advanced intelligence, which comprehensively evaluates inputs from multiple sensors that are equivalent to the visual, auditory, and tactile senses of a human being, then estimates the situation of the surrounding environment and determines the corresponding behavior of the robot. With this technology, ASIMO became capable of responding to the movement of people and the surrounding situations. For instance, ASIMO will stop its current action and change its behavior to accommodate the intention of the other party. Moreover, coordination between visual and auditory sensors enables ASIMO to simultaneously recognize a face and voice, enabling ASIMO to recognize the voices of multiple people who are speaking simultaneously, which is difficult even for a human being to accomplish.

Further, ASIMO is now capable of predicting the direction a person will walk within the next few seconds based on information from pre-set space sensors and quickly determining to take an alternate path to avoid a collision with the person if the estimated locations of the person and the ASIMO intersect.

2. Advancement of physical capability
The combination of strengthened legs, an expanded range of leg movement and a newly developed control technology that enables ASIMO to change landing positions in the middle of a motion has enabled ASIMO to walk, run, run backward, hop on one leg or on two legs continuously. As a result of acquiring the ability to make such agile motions, ASIMO has become capable of more flexibly adapting to changing external situations so that it can, as an example, walk over an uneven surface while maintaining a stable posture.

3. Improved task-performing capability
Honda has developed a highly functional compact multi-fingered hand, which has a tactile sensor and a force sensor imbedded on the palm and in each finger, respectively, and which acts to control each finger independently. Combined with the object recognition technology based on visual and tactile senses, this multi-fingered hand enables the all-new ASIMO to perform tasks with dexterity, such as picking up a glass bottle and twisting off the cap, or holding a soft paper cup to pour a liquid without squishing it. Moreover, ASIMO is now capable of making sign language expressions which require the complex movement of fingers.

Key specifications of the all-new ASIMO
1. Height
130 cm
2. Weight
48kg (decreased 6kg from previous model)
3. Operating degreesof freedom
Total: 57 degrees of freedom (increase of 23 degrees of freedom from previous model)
4. Running Speed
9km/hour (previous model: 6km/hour)

Establishing a collective name, Honda Robotics, to represent Honda's robotics technologies and product applications
Studying human beings to understand people and learn from people is the root of Honda's manufacturing. While positioning the humanoid robot research as one of the important pillars in the area of studying human beings, Honda has been working to realize various functions of a human being that is the ultimate mobility with intelligence.

Honda newly established a collective term, Honda Robotics, and the logo to represent Honda's robotics technologies and application products created through its research and development of humanoid robot represented by ASIMO.

In addition to the all-new ASIMO and the task-performing robot arm introduced today, the previously introduced the walking assist device with stride management system which supports walking for people with weakened leg muscles, the bodyweight support assist system which reduces the load on legs by supporting part of the bodyweight, and the U3-X, a compact one-wheel-drive mobility device that provides free movement in all directions, are examples of product applications resulting from the application of bipedal technology and balance control technology amassed through the research and development of ASIMO.

Striving to offer next-generation mobility products which expand the joy and fun of mobility, Honda will continue the robotics research that leads to ASIMO, walking assist devices, U3-X and other technologies. In addition, Honda will also work proactively toward putting such product applications into practical use.

Task-performing Robot Arm
Technologies developed for ASIMO were applied to an experimental model of a task-performing robot arm, which moves on a self-propelled base and was designed under the assumption of being utilized at disaster sites or other places too dangerous for people to work. Toward this end, the robot arm was made possible to be remotely controlled to approach the object and stably perform necessary tasks even in a narrow space with unstable footing and many obstacles.

The stability control technology used for ASIMO's walking and running was applied to stabilize the posture of the end of the arm even on an unstable surface so that the robot arm can exert the necessary power output to perform the task. Moreover, the application of other ASIMO technologies such as the compact layout structural designing technique and multi-joint simultaneous orbit control technology that simultaneously controls as many as 57 motors imbedded in the joints of the arms and legs has enabled the robot arm to avoid obstacles and approach an object even in a narrow space with obstacles such as a complicated layout of pipelines.

In the development process, the robot arm is designed to perform the task of opening and closing valves on pipelines; however, it will become capable of performing a variety of tasks by changing the end piece of the arm.

Key specifications of the task-performing robot arm
1. Length
1583 mm (arm length)
2. Width
338mm (base)
3. Depth
391mm (base)
4. Weight
29.5kg
5. Operating degreesof freedom
10 degrees of freedom (including the end piece of the arm)

Source;
http://www.hondanews.com/channels/corporate-headlines/releases/honda-unveils-all-new-asimo-with-significant-advancements