This engine, develops 150 PS at 5,500 rpm and 203 Nm of torque between 1,600-5,000 rpm on the newly-launched Honda Jade RS in Japan.
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Honda Motor Co.HMC -0.54 % ‘s new chief executive is making a break from his predecessor by prioritizing new technology, while stepping back from the aggressive sales targets the Japanese auto maker had struggled to meet.
The first Civic Type R rolled off the production line at HUM last week and speaking at the start of mass production, HUM’s Managing Director, Mr Takizawa commented, “The new Civic Type R is a significant model for Honda, representing our racing spirit and demonstrating our commitment to innovation and passion”.
In contrast, Mr. Hachigo on Monday played up the importance of teamwork and communication, vowing to build an environment that adopts more ideas from people actually involved in projects. Also, just before Hachigo was announced as the successor, Ito made a decision to drop the company’s goal of delivering 6 million vehicles annually by 2017.
According to Automotive News, Hachigo told reporters: “Rather than focusing on numbers, it is important to come up with products that carry dreams and satisfy our customers”.
Unfortunately, Hachigo has the issue of continued overcapacity to deal with, a legacy of Ito’s expansion of Honda’s global production footprint, while global sales remain in the doldrums.
The CEO also clarified that the company has no plans to provide any financial assistance to Takata Corp., the air bag supplier who contributed to huge losses for the company after Honda was forced to recall over two million cars with defective air bags. The automaker recently restated last year’s earnings to account for additional costs.
“We have money budgeted for quality-related costs, as we did previous year, and we think we can respond within this allocated amount”, Hachigo said in Tokyo.
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Faced with the safety concerns and sluggish sales, Honda in June cut its projected group net profit to ¥493.01 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, from the previously reported ¥522.76 billion.
