Honda Hybrid Cars

Honda Hybrid Cars

Honda Motor Corporation

Honda Motor Corporation was established in 1948 and is the largest manufacturer of motor vehicle in Japan, after Toyota and Nissan. Being the world largest producer of internal combustion engines, Honda Motor is also recognized internationally for its knowledge and management in producing and manufacturing a broad range of products, from small to sport engines. The global network of Honda motor company is huge, as it comprises of 434 subsidiaries, which also includes 118 production facilities in more than 33 countries (www.web.mit.edu). The highest consumption of Honda motor cars is seen in Japan and North America which totals 40% of the company's revenue.

Competition and Hybrid Cars

Nowadays most of the companies are competing globally; in order to get competitive advantage single strategy does not seems to be successful. However, to remain competitive in market an effective strategy is very essential. The main concept to illustrate is that Honda has adopted a competitive strategy to come up with hybrid cars in its product line and it has gained an edge over its competitors. The main aim of carrying out this research was to get an insight in the effectiveness of this strategy and the issues faced by the company in launching hybrid cars (Brons, 25-45).

Hybrid cars are generally more expensive than normal cars due to their design and systems including electronics. Since most people have never owned a hybrid vehicle, purchasing a hybrid vehicle is a problem. A common misconception that people have is that hybrid vehicles cost more due to their complex battery system. Both types of cars use lead acid type batteries. The sole difference is in the re-charging process. There are four kinds of hybrid vehicles: full hybrid, series hybrid, parallel hybrid, and plug-in hybrid. Most of the hybrid vehicles on the roads are Parallel Hybrids which have fuel tanks as fuel supply system. The cost of each hybrid depends upon the capacity to save (Boonekamp, 29).

The oil prices are on the steady rise all over the world. People are in search of alternative fuels to use in their mode of transportation. The research and development department of Honda has identified this need. Since Honda is famous for its innovative technology, they are the first movers of the Hybrid technology in cars. Hybrid technology acts as an alternative fuel for cars, which is cheap and not likely to get obsolete in the future coming years. The lack of capital was the main problem for Honda motors to initiate hybrid technology. Countries such as China have openly declared that it will be investing in the hybrid technology for cars. Honda Motors has taken utmost advantage of this opportunity. Having an "excellent brand" name, Honda attracted many Chinese investors to invest their money in the hybrid technology which has not been started by many of the automobile companies. With Honda producing compact cars with the support of hybrid technology, it is going to beat all the car manufacturers at every level. This is because currently ...