Honda’s new CEO talks about converging dreams, sensing technologies and automated driving

HONDA Motor Co. CEO Takahiro Hachigo

THE 44TH Tokyo Motor Show (TMS) was the first time that Takahiro Hachigo spoke at an international press conference as the president and CEO of Honda Motor Co. Ltd.

Hachigo assumed the presidency last June in the 33th year of his career at Honda. An engineer, he started out as a member of a chassis development group at the Honda R&D Tochigi Center in 1982.

Then he became deputy chief engineer of the second-generation Odyssey built in Canada, took charge of the second generation CR-V development that was launched in 2001 and was promoted to operating officer of R&D in 2006.

The following year, he was promoted to managing officer. From R&D, Hachigo was assigned to the purchasing division as a general manager in 2008.

In 2011, he was promoted to head the Suzuka auto factory where he led the creation of the new Kei-car project, consolidating the R&D function into the factory to expedite development and production.

In 2012, Hachigo was sent to Europe where he contributed to the production reformation and cost reduction of the European Civic made in United Kingdom.

In 2013, Hachigo moved to China to head development and purchasing. Finally, in February 2015 it was announced that he would succeed Takanobu Ito, who was to complete his six-year term as Honda Motor president.

Hachigo’s well-rounded professional experience as a Honda Motor executive in Japan, Europe and China over a period of 33 years is reflected in the welcome remarks he delivered at the Honda press conference in the 44th TMS.

Below are significant excerpts from Hachigo’s speech:

“Driven by ‘The Power of Dreams,’ Honda has always been striving to create new values by converging people’s dreams and our own dreams as creators.

HACHIGO with the Clarity fuel cell vehicle and EV-Cub commuter

“We dream to offer people greater opportunities in their daily life and to expand their life’s potential, and therefore we constantly take on challenges to realize our dreams. In doing so, we have always cherished the power that our dreams let us embrace.

“[T]he number of models lined up here today includes a wide range of mobility products Honda has created to be useful in the everyday lives of people and to pursue advanced driving performance.

“Super Cub, which can be described as the origin of Honda, and the latest version of HondaJet represent products that are useful for people, while our F1 and MotoGP machines demonstrate the pursuit of driving performance in our products.

“This lineup represents Honda’s passion for the art of making things.

“When I became president of Honda, one of the themes I set in our pursuit of a new Honda is the ‘continuous development of challenging products unique to Honda and delivering them to our customers around the world.’

“Today, I am pleased to be here to introduce challenging mobility products filled with the unique characteristics of Honda.

“[W]hile providing such a wide range of mobility products, Honda is striving to address various issues faced by motorized society including traffic accidents, traffic congestion and mobility issues related to the aging of population.

“We believe that advancement of Honda ‘Sensing’ our driver-assistive technologies, will lead us to the realization of automated driving.

“Therefore we are working on the improvement of the functionality of Honda Sensing as well as the expansion of Honda Sensing technologies to more models.

“Drivers can enjoy mobility via cars only when they can feel the support, peace of mind and comfort they are getting from Honda Sensing-equipped vehicles.

“When we can realize automated driving, our vehicles’ ability to avoid dangerous situations and assist the driver will be further increased.

“When that happens, Honda’s ultimate safety goals—‘zero accident’ and the ‘realization of the joy and freedom of mobility’—should be attained.

“Toward this end, it is essential to realize automated driving that features a comfort function capable of determining the next move the vehicle should take by using highly sophisticated intelligence technologies, high-performance sensors and high-accuracy maps to recognize what is going on with the vehicle and the environment outside the vehicle.

“To be more concrete, we will continue making progress in our technology development with a target to put our automated driving technologies to practical use on highways by 2020.

“Honda will continue pursuing its goal to advance automobiles to the point where they will have ‘zero social footprint’ and we will strive to contribute to society with our automated driving technologies.

“Finally, let me say that some of Honda’s challenges toward these new mobility products will bear fruit this year. Our entry into the aviation industry—which was also a dream of our company founder—with our HF120 jet engine and HondaJet are coming very close.

“Honda will strive to realize the joy and freedom of mobility and a sustainable society where people can enjoy life for our customers in the aircraft business as well.

“At Honda, we think over and over again. We embody our original ideas with our innovative technologies.

“We do not let go of our ideas and passion without trying something. We pursue things all the way to the end and break through the conventional thinking or precedent.

“Such determination runs through all of these Honda

mobility products I introduced today.”