Honda breaks global sales and production records in 2007

Honda Motor Co. Ltd has announced continued growth, with high demand and record sales for its automobiles and motorcycles across the world.

In 2007, Honda supplied its products to 23,335,000 customers worldwide, up 3% on the previous year.

Global sales of automobiles rose 6% to a record 3,767,000, driven by demand in many of the emerging markets around the world, in particular China, South America and Eastern Europe supported by a solid sales increase coming from the U.S.

Sales of motorcycles rose 7% to a record 13,476,000, with high demand in Asia and South America. Honda continues its position as the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer.

Sales of Power Products declined slightly, down 5% to 6,092,000.

Automobiles

Five of Honda’s six global sales regions achieved record sales results.
China rose 31% to 428,000, South America by 30% to 117,000, Europe/Middle East/Africa by 23% to 480,000, Asia/Oceania by 9% to 343,000 and North America, Honda’s largest market , by 3% to 1,776,000.

Motorcycles

Two of Honda’s sales regions achieved record sales results with South America up 25% to 1,534,000 and Asia/Oceania up 4% to 9,596,000. China also showed a major growth with sales up 29% to 1,166,000.

Production

Global production records were broken for both automobiles and motorcycles.

Automobiles production increased 8% to 3,911,000 compared with 2006. Motorcycle production also grew by 6% to 13,658,000 – again a substantial increment on the year before. These increases took place outside of Japan, representing the continued success in Honda’s global policy of producing close to those markets where demand exists.