From dreaming to driving

Without Soichiro, Honda would have no history. Soichiro had a dream, and made it come true throughout his very long career – from the first motorized bike to HondaJet and Asimo.

Petrol perfume

The beginning of the dream – Soichiro Honda sees a car for the first time in his life, and his life will never be the same again. Our first car was a bike

In 1946, Soichiro created his first vehicle with propulsion – a motorized bicycle.

These were difficult times in post-war Japan. There were few cars and even fewer motorcycles.

Soichiro saw an opportunity to arrange easy transportation for everyone. With the help of a bicycle, an old army radio generator and a little imagination, he created a simple motorized bike, which would make the daily life of many people a lot easier.

This idea, mobility for all, was the seed for the dream that Honda would eventually produce all kinds of means of transport for all people.

Why stick to two wheels?

In 1963, Soichiro decided to make his first car.

However, the Japanese government did not think this was a good idea and devised a law that would force Honda to produce only motorcycles. But Soichiro was known as someone who liked to go his own way. And so he went ahead with his plan and created the S500 Roadster.

This wasn't just Honda's first car – it was also the first red car in Japan. The Japanese streets and highways suddenly got a lot more colour.

Cleaning in America

When the U.S. government passed the Clean Air Act in 1970, most automakers decided that it was impossible to meet these new standards.

At Honda, we didn't know much about air pollution. But we did know that our CVCC engine had a fairly low emission of harmful gases. After much experimentation and testing, our engine became the first to meet the standards set out in the Clean Air Act. And we were excited to keep the air as clean as possible, a belief that is packed, among other things, into our environmentally friendly Earth Dreams engines.

If you don't succeed at first,

The S2000. A gift from Honda to Honda for the company's 50th anniversary. At least, that was it, until our director took it for a ride.

After just one round, he returned the keys and asked one simple question: "Is this the best you can make?"

A year later, Honda gave himself a gift for the 51st anniversary. The Honda S2000. Dreams turned out to be more important than deadlines.

Honda S2000

The original, rounder prototype - made for Honda's 50th anniversary.

Dreams of the future

We've been at it for over 70 years, but as far as we're concerned, we're just getting started.

We're taking on new challenges, and other dreams. We want to make things better and help the world move forward more efficiently.

We've made cars with an electric motor and fuel cell, like the FCX Clarity, which only emit clean water, and we've used the sun to power a race-winning car: the Honda Dream.

So if this is Honda now, what will Honda look like tomorrow?