Takanobu Ito

Honda hasn't been profitable in Europe since 2007, and would like to break the two-percent market-share barrier in the EU and Russia. To do that, it is looking at a rival to Nissan's Qashqai. Nissan's compact CUV alone outsold the entire Honda lineup in Europe in the first nine months of this ...

There are plenty of ways to know an automaker has made a misstep. Diminished sales and high inventory are typical markers of a lackluster model, as is a paucity of critical acclaim. All three factors are currently weighting on the 2012 Honda Civic. And while stopping short of an actual apology, ...

Last year, 34 percent of all Honda vehicles sold around the globe were produced in Japan, but that number could change drastically over the next decade. Reuters reports that Honda CEO Takanobu Ito told Japan's Asahi newspaper that the automaker will drop its exports to 10-20 percent over the next ...

The original Acura NSX was an enthusiast's dream car come true. It had supercar looks, a lightweight aluminum chassis and a big chunk of Honda engineering soul. Unfortunately, the original NSX went through life without many adjustments, and Honda's supercar dream died quietly in 2005. To be more ...

Automotive News reports that the long-dead NSX is back under development after its spiritual successor was sent to the round file in 2008. We've heard an increasing chorus of rumors that the project has been taken off the shelf, but this is the first time we can recall reading direct quotes from ...

The March 11th earthquake and tsunami in Japan hit Honda hard, as production was down for weeks and the automaker's research and development center was badly damaged. In fact, the quake damaged the Tochigi facility so badly that one employee died and 17 others were injured after a cafeteria wall ...

The Detroit Auto Show is coming up. After that, we go to the Chicago Auto Show. Then New York and maybe Geneva. We are going to hob-knob with most of the auto industry titans: CEOs, Design Chiefs, Product Development Bosses. We will be at dinners, group interviews, one-on-one interviews and ...

During the unveiling of the CR-Z at the Detroit Auto Show, Honda CEO Takanobu Ito announced that Acura will be adding a hybrid drivetrain to its models. Ito gave no further insights as to timing or which vehicles would get the systems, but it's safe to speculate that the TSX and TL sedans would ...

Following our time visiting this week's Tokyo Motor Show, we had the opportunity to sit down for a small group interview at Honda's world headquarters with freshly-minted CEO Takanobu Ito, who took over the reigns at Honda from Takeo Fukui just this past June. Among the questions posed to Ito-san ...

What goes up, must come down. And in this situation, Japan's yen has gone up when compared to our dollar -- about eight percent since August. And with the yen's rise in value, the profitability of low margin cars like the Honda Fit goes down. ...