Entry into General-Purpose Engines
“I Want a Small Engine for Backpack insecticide power duster”
A small farm machines manufacturer, hearing the reputation of the A-type bicycle auxiliary engine (introduced in 1947) and the better performing F-type Cub (introduced in 1952), approached Honda, interested in purchasing engines on an OEM basis*1.
In September 1952, production of Honda's first general-purpose engine, the H-Type, based on the basic structure of the Cub F-Type’s engine, began. The main components were made of die-cast aluminum, which was revolutionary at the time, and the engine was lightweight and compact, weighing only 6 kg, and producing 1 horsepower. The engine was well received as it could be started with only two tugs of the starter cord, in contrast to other engines that required more work to start, leading to its use as a Backpack insecticide power duster engine not only in orchards in Japan but also widely in coffee farms in Brazil.
Honda’s first general-purpose H-Type engine designed for Backpack insecticide power duster.
Through the development of the H-Type, Soichiro Honda’s desire to make the country more prosperous by reducing labor and increasing productivity through wider adoption of products with Honda engines, led to the belief that “to be accepted by all people, 2-stroke engines that are not hard to use, smell bad, and emit smoke are no good. We need 4-strokes.” Despite a more complex structure and higher cost, Honda decided to develop 4-stroke engines. In December 1954, Honda began marketing the T-Type, which was compact and easy for inexperienced users to handle. The T-Type, with an increased output of 2.5 hp, featured Honda’s first general-purpose carburetor that was stable to use at an angle, a prerequisite for agricultural machinery. The muffler had also been treated to resist discoloration at high temperatures, and in addition to improved usability, its appearance had also been considered.
Honda’s first 4-stroke general-purpose engine, the T-Type.
Japan’s economic growth accelerated from the mid-1950s. In rural areas, young people were leaving their hometowns to join the urban workforce, and labor shortages were becoming more pronounced. In 1956, the number of automatic threshing machine in use reached 2.7 million, or half of the farmers in Japan, and mechanization of agriculture was steadily progressing due to labor shortages.
As a versatile power source to meet the growing mechanization of agriculture and the increasing efficiency of the construction industry, the VN-Type engine, a compact, lightweight, and high-performance engine in the high-demand 3.5-horsepower class, was developed and released in 1956. This engine was a forced-air-cooled, 4-stroke, side-valve, upright engine with good starting performance, adapted to existing attachments in terms of normal operational speed, direction of rotation, head mounting dimensions, and drive shaft positioning. After the VN-Type was launched, specific applications by users became clearer, and in order to anticipate convenience and the market’s desire for higher quality, a new VN series was developed. In 1958, the VNC-Type engine with camshaft drive, and the VND-Type engine with direct crankshaft drive and reduction gear were launched. With a maximum output of 5 hp, the engines were compact, light, and easy to start with an automatic centrifugal clutch and recoil starter, and had aluminum fan covers to reduce fan noise and provide a high level of visual appeal.
In 1958, when the Super Cub C100 motorcycle was introduced and the company was entering its growth stage, Honda established its Agricultural Machinery Design Division, and entered the field of tillers and generators utilizing general-purpose engines, which propelled its power products business as well.
The VN-Type, developed as a compact and light high-performance engine.
The camshaft-driven VNC-Type engine marketed as the VN series.
- Original Equipment Manufacturer: Manufacturing products for other company brands
The camshaft-driven VNC-Type engine marketed as the
VN series.
Since the launch in 1959 of Honda’s first complete tiller, the F150, the company had expanded its power products business into a wide range of fields, including power generators and outboard motors. In the midst of this expansion, Honda turned its attention to overseas markets, where the scale of OEM supply of general-purpose engines that power these complete machines, was exponentially larger than the Japanese domestic market.
In 1963, Honda launched the G20, a compact and lightweight engine, and the G30, an engine for a wide range of applications, as power units suitable for international markets. The G series, highly acclaimed for its ease of use, was installed in outboard motors, generators, and pumps for use in a wide range of everyday situations, and was produced as the mainstay of Honda’s general-purpose engines for over 10 years. Still, Honda produced only 200,000 engines a year, compared to the millions produced by the world’s largest general-purpose engine manufacturer, Briggs & Stratton Corporation of the United States.
Since that time, Honda’s quality and reliability was extremely high. However, its products were more expensive and heavier than those of its competitors, and because some of the installation specifications were unique, they were not highly compatible with the OEM machines, which hampered efforts to increase sales volume.
In 1975, Kiyoshi Kawashima, who had taken over as president from Soichiro Honda, proposed a Three-Pillar Initiative to break through this situation. His plan called for a company-wide effort to develop the power products business, which had been stagnant, as the third pillar of the Honda’s business, along with its world-class motorcycles and automobiles, which had been on a growth trend thanks to the success of the N360 and the subsequent Civic.
The G20 and G30, developed for overseas markets, were later expanded into the G series and became the mainstay of Honda’s general-purpose engines for more than 10 years.
“Create a Million-Selling Engine”
Specific goals for developing the power products business into one of the three pillars of Honda’s business were soon announced. “Develop a million-selling engine.” As Honda’s annual general-purpose engine production at the time was around 200,000-units, the goal of 1 million units came as a surprise to the development team. Their surprise led to naming the engine the “ME engine” (ME engine concept), taking the initials of “Million-seller Engine.”
The next task was to determine what kind of engine should be created to sell one million units. At the time, the size of the global general-purpose engine market was approximately 10 million units. Of these, approximately 8 million were manufactured by Briggs & Stratton Corporation of the United States, who had a stronghold in the home (consumer) market thanks to its strong cost competitiveness through mass production. Honda’s motorcycle-derived engines were high quality, but more expensive and were not easily accepted in the power products market. Given the choice of a 10,000 yen engine that lasted three years and a 30,000 yen engine that lasted a decade, consumers would choose the cheaper engine. The power products market had a different sense of value from motorcycles and automobiles.
Honda focused on the commercial power products market, rather than the consumer market which was dominated by Briggs, with a concept to make products “tough and durable, for half the cost.”
Assembling the Wisdom from Each Group
To Realize the Concept
“Tough and durable” was easy enough to say, but how durable? This was a difficult question. Every person feels differently in different situations and how the product is used. The user should feel that the product was tough and durable. The user’s feeling thus became the standard, and this was the direction that the new engine should aim for. The development team was assembled from all divisions of the company, including both motorcycles and automobiles. They endlessly discussed how the engine would be used in the market and how users would perceive it. For example, one of the most annoying problems was engine seizure. No matter how strong the engine was, it was useless once it seized. If so, why not stop the engine before it seizes? This idea led to the “Oil Alert,” a function that automatically stops the engine when the engine oil is lower than a specified level. Other new features included maintenance-free CDI ignition, a decompression cam for easy starting, and a kill switch for quick stopping in an emergency.
The other target, reducing the cost by half, was also a difficult challenge. In order to make a world-class engine, costs had to be reduced while quality was improved. An associate was assigned per function (tank, carburetor, crank, etc.) and set targets. For example, if the current cost of fuel tanks was 800 yen, the target would be 400 yen. It was an aggressive approach, but it was impossible to achieve using common sense alone. There were many functions that were considered impossible. For example, with spark plugs the only way to reduce cost was to make common plugs, use standardized sizes, or buy cheap. At best, the cost reduction was 3% to 4%. In such a case, the spark plugs team would collaborate with other teams that are working on functions that could halve their costs despite the difficulties. They would come up with ideas for that function to halve costs, and the amount exceeding that half could be subtracted from their own results (that did not reach target reductions). All teams worked together to achieve the single, unified goal. The accumulation of these efforts eventually led to the astonishing result of “almost half.”
Structure of the ME engine G200 with an oil
alert mechanism that automatically stops the
engine when the engine oil runs low to prevent
engine seizure.
Structural drawing of ME engine G200
Achieving the Goal of One Million Units
that No-one Believed In
In 1977, Honda began selling the G150 and G200, engines that were developed based on the ME engine concept. They were well received in Southeast Asia as “red and white engines that sell well without being put on the store shelves,” and were widely used in outboard engines and water pumps. Engines developed based on the ME engine concept developed into a series, and in 1982, the target annual sales volume of 1 million units had been achieved, successfully demonstrating to the world Honda’s technological capabilities and solid marketing focus.
The strategy of clarifying what the engine should be, as a general-purpose engine through market-based product requirements and development with future goals in mind, brought success that no one believed possible. This success also triggered a departure from the motorcycle engines they were based on, and opened the way for the unique ME engines as general-purpose engines. In this sense, the ME engine was worthy of being a product developed under the three-pillar business structure.
The outlandish goal of 1 million units led to the development of various ideas and the establishment of a new company structure, which was made possible not so much by 1 million units, as by the desire to please 1 million customers.
The G150 and G200, well received in Southeast Asia as “red and white engines that sell well without being put on the store shelves.”
General-Purpose Water-Cooled Engines
Born From Need for Low-Noise Generators
In addition to supplying general-purpose engines on an OEM, Honda also developed engines for its own complete products, each suited to a specific application.
In the 1970s, riding the wave of rapid economic growth, generators began to be used more and more at construction sites, and as nighttime construction work increased in urban areas, the need for low-noise equipment increased, including generators. In response, Honda developed the EM5000, equipped with a water-cooled 4-stroke engine borrowed from the Life k-car. The EM5000 was so quiet that a test run of the final prototype was conducted in the middle of the night in front of the home where the development leader lived, but the generator was so quiet, it went completely unnoticed. The EM5000 was not limited to construction applications, but was also widely used in film and television production sites, and sales continued to grow.
However, several years after its launch, the Life was discontinued in line with Honda’s automobile strategy, and production of the EM5000 was inevitably halted. There was nonetheless strong demand from the market, and around 1980, a plan was made to develop a water-cooled engine unique to general-purpose applications to replace the EM5000. However, at the time, there were no products other than generators in the product line for the new engine to power. Honda decided to utilize the BF9.9 outboard engine production line in order to reduce investment costs.
Although production shared the same facilities that were optimized for outboard engines, a constant source of problems, a number of ideas were implemented, taking advantage of the situation. The result was the unique GX360 engine. The GX360 was installed in the EX5000 (Soundproof) and ES6000 generators released in 1982. Later, the GX360 powered the HT3813 riding lawnmower and the EV6010 car-mounted generator, expanding the range of applications for the engine. In both cases, the high reliability and low noise of the GX360 compared to competing products led to overwhelming product competitiveness. It developed into a long-selling product, adopted by an OEM in the U.S. for use in marine generators, and a cumulative total of approximately 170,000 units were produced (by the end of FY1996), far exceeding the initial plan.
Super quiet EX5000 and ES6000 equipped with the GX360 water-cooled engine, originally developed as a general-purpose engine.
