Company founder Soichiro Honda, after working at Art Shokai, developed his own design for piston rings in 1938. He attempted to sell them to Toyota and after two years of work he won a contract with them. He constructed a new facility to supply Toyota, but soon after, during World War II, the Honda piston manufacturing facilities were almost completely destroyed.
Soichiro Honda created a new company with what he had left. The Japanese market was crippled by World War II; his country was starved of money and fuel, but was still in need of basic transportation. Honda, utilizing his manufacturing facilities, attached an engine to a bicycle which created a cheap and efficient method of transport. He gave his company the name Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha which translates to Honda Techno-research Industrial Company Ltd. Despite its grandiose name, the first facility bearing that name was a simple wooden shack where Mr. Honda and his associates would fit the engines to bicycles. The official Japanese name for Honda Motor Company Ltd. remains the same in honor of Soichiro Honda's efforts. On 24 September 1948 the Honda Motor Co. was officially founded in Japan.
Honda began to produce a range of scooters and motorbikes and Soichiro Honda quickly recovered from the losses incurred during the war. Honda's first motorbike to be put on sale was the 1947 A-Type (one year before the company was officially founded). However, Honda's first full-fledged motorbike on the market was the 1949 Dream D-Type. It was equipped with a 98cc engine producing around 3 horsepower (2.2 kW). This was followed by other highly popular scooters throughout the 1950s.
Honda Super Cub C50In 1958, the American Honda Company was founded and one year later, Honda introduced its first model in the United States, the 1959 Honda C100 Super Cub. The Honda Cub holds the title of being the best-selling vehicle in history, with around 50 million units sold around the world. |
