April 22, 2004 -- Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced today the establishment of a fully-owned subsidiary in Russia to strengthen its local motorcycle, automobile and power product sales operations in the rapidly expanding Russian market. The new subsidiary named, Honda Motor RUS LLC is located in Moscow and will be responsible for strengthening Honda's sales operations as well as overseeing logistics, after-service, advertising and public relations functions. 

The Russian automobile market has made a strong recovery since the economic crisis in 1998 reflected by growth in annual automobile sales from approximately 900,000 units in 2000 to 1.20 million units in 2003. Annual sales of imported automobiles quadrupled to over 190,000 units during this same period and are expected to continue expanding in the future. Elimination of the consumption tax, a reduction of VAT from 20% to 18% in January of this year as well as the anticipated participation of Russia in the WTO within the next few years, are expected to further contribute to economic growth in the region and to further expansion of the automobile market. Honda's automobile sales target for 2004 is 4,800 units (+34% compared to 2003).