TOKYO, Japan, October 23, 2019 -- Honda Motor Co., Ltd. President, Representative Director and CEO Takahiro Hachigo held a press conference today, at the 46th Tokyo Motor Show 2019. Following is a summary of his formal remarks:

Ever since its founding, with a passion to help people all around the world, Honda has been committed to delivering new value for mobility and people’s daily lives through our broad range of products, including motorcycles, automobiles, power products and business jets. And today, we are pursuing our business with our 2030 Vision as a guide, which is to serve people worldwide with the “joy of expanding their life’s potential.”

The Tokyo Motor Show has a special place in our heart as a motor show held in the home market of Honda. We believe that the Tokyo Motor Show should be an occasion where the fundamental strengths of Japan and new value that only Japan can create get communicated from Japan to people all around the world.

At the same time, we hope that a broader range of customers will grow their interest in cars and motorcycles through this Tokyo Motor Show, including young people who will forge the future. Furthermore, we want Honda booth visitors to enjoy real-world experiences of how Honda mobility products can expand the “joy of mobility” and “people’s life’s potential.”

Today, we will introduce products that embody Honda’s 2030 Vision and also other attractive products Honda wants to showcase from Japan to the world.

Electrification and energy are key factors which will enable us to fulfill our 2030 Vision and expand people’s life’s potential.

Striving to help individual people in their daily lives, Honda has been working on the electrification of our automobile products for over 20 years, and at the same time, we have been evolving products that generate power and energy, such as generators and general purpose engines. Also, Honda has been introducing technologies that connect products through energy and electricity, such as the Power Exporter 9000 which enables the external output of electricity generated by a vehicle, and the Honda Mobile Power Pack, a portable and swappable battery that makes it easy for people to carry electricity with them.

With our technologies, Honda has created a cycle of “generating energy, using energy and connecting with energy.” And in the coming years, Honda will further enhance this cycle and seamlessly connect mobility and people’s daily lives. With that, Honda will create new value that only Honda can create and contribute to the realization of a carbon-free society.

Honda’s high-efficiency electrification technologies, including energy management technologies, will enable us to create value for mobility and people’s daily lives. And we will evolve consistent communications of such products and technologies under the collective name of “Honda e:TECHNOLOGY.”   

Honda wants to offer new value unique only to Honda for those customers who use our motorcycles, automobiles and power products that are powered by electricity or other forms of energy. In so doing, Honda wants to inspire people, put a smile on people’s faces and become a partner in making their daily lives more enjoyable. This is our passion represented by the new name – Honda e:TECHNOLOGY.

In the area of automobiles, we have further advanced our core electrification technology, namely, our high-efficiency 2-motor hybrid system with excellent fuel economy, so that it can now be applied to small-sized vehicles as well. And under the umbrella of Honda e:TECHNOLOGY, we established a communication name – e:HEV – for our hybrid system for this new era, for vehicles driven mostly by an electric motor. Including the all-new Fit and the all-new Accord which is scheduled to be introduced to the Japanese market in February of next year, we will begin evolving our communications to convey the appeal of our e:HEV models. With this e:HEV as the main driving force, Honda will further accelerate its initiative to electrify two-thirds of its global automobile unit sales by 2030. 

In 2020, Honda will start sales in Japan of the Honda e, a future-oriented urban commuter, which Honda proposes as a mobility product that will expand people’s life’s potential. Honda e is a dedicated EV model developed based on our vision of what cars should look like 10 years from now.

Honda e is compatible with a charging and feeding system, and the users can enjoy first-hand experience of the exchange of energy. Moreover, Honda e is equipped with Honda Personal Assistant, which uses Honda’s original AI technologies to provide appropriate information through natural conversations with the user. This vehicle will enable users to experience a preview of a future life where their cars are seamlessly connected with society and their daily lives.

In the area of motorcycles, Honda also will pursue electrification with Honda e:TECHNOLOGY, mainly with business-use motorcycles which are used for delivery services. Today, Honda will exhibit the world premiere of the Benly e: electric scooter and Gyro e: electric three-wheeled scooter powered by the Honda Mobile Power Pack, a portable and swappable battery which makes it possible to swap batteries easily at their delivery stations. By electrifying business-use motorcycles we see a lot in our everyday lives, Honda wants to offer a quieter and cleaner environment for people’s daily lives and, at the same time, we want to contribute to the happiness of working people as well.  

Benly e: is scheduled to go on sale in next spring, and Honda will start offering connected service for our motorcycle customers at the same timing. This connected service, which includes a maintenance reminder service, will connect our customers, who are business owners in this case, and their scooters and motorcycles, and also Honda, which will further increase safety and a sense of reassurance for our customers who use our products for their business purposes.

By connecting these electrified motorcycle and automobile products through our power products and energy, we can further advance our value creation for mobility and people’s daily lives, and Honda will continue proposing such a new world that only we can create with Honda e:TECHNOLOGY. 

Honda created the Fit in Japan, in 2001, in pursuit of a vehicle that could become a new industry benchmark for compact cars. Since then, Fit has been enjoying a high reputation as a vehicle which features outstanding packaging, fuel economy, driving performance and design. Fit continued evolving on a global basis, and its cumulative worldwide sales exceeds 7.5 million units.

What we strive to do with this all-new Fit is to establish the standard for compact cars suited to this new era. We believe this car will be able to become an industry standard for the new era only if it can win admiration in the Japanese market where fulfilling customer needs for compact cars is especially difficult compared to other parts of the world. Based on this belief, we squarely and sincerely faced our customers in Japan and perfected this all-new Fit as a global model that Honda will propose from Japan to the rest of the world.

We developed this vehicle not merely as a means of transportation for our customers. We strived for a vehicle which will become a part of our customers’ daily lives and make their daily lives more comfortable and enjoyable. This is a compact car for the new era, and this vehicle will set a new standard for Honda automobile development. 

The all-new Fit features the latest functions of the Honda SENSING safety and driver-assistive system, the most advanced Honda e:TECHNOLOGY, as well as a simple and endearing design. We filled this compact body of the all-new Fit with our strong passion and latest technologies. Moreover, starting with this all-new Fit, Honda will begin providing new services which utilize an on-board communication module named Honda CONNECT, and we are planning to sequentially evolve them to future new models and models underdoing a full model change in Japan.

Based on my experience with its driving performance as well as the visual and tactile quality, I have full confidence in this all-new Fit, and it is my great pleasure that we are able to offer our customers a preview of the all-new Fit at the Tokyo Motor Show, prior to the market launch in February of next year.

Honda will continue taking on challenges in various areas in order to serve people worldwide with the “joy of expanding their life’s potential.” And we hope that the Tokyo Motor Show 2019 will be an opportunity for many people to enjoy the broad range of products that embody Honda’s 2030 Vision.