Honda chief: Product development needs more time for quality – New Jersey

“We’re delighted that the European Civic Type R will be sold to customers in Honda’s home country of Japan”, said Honda Motor Europe Senior Vice President, Philip Ross. The company’s recalls linked to Takata have ballooned by 20 million globally.

Takahiro Hachigo, who took over as president on July 1, told reporters in Tokyo on Monday that his focus would be to “bring out the best” of the company’s vaunted engineers so that they can come up with products that are unique to Honda. Japan’s Takata Corp., a major supplier of automotive safety parts, has been recalling since 2008 millions of vehicles equipped with defective airbag inflators across eleven automotive clients. Moreover, operating profit for fiscal 2014 was slashed from a previous 651.68 billion yen to 606.88 billion yen.

The cause has not yet been pinpointed for the air bags that can explode with too much force and spew shrapnel into the vehicle. Honda is still reeling from the impact; it had to restate its 2014 earnings last month, to account for the extra costs required to cover recall-related losses.

When asked about future tie-ups with other companies, Hachigo said his basic stance is to utilize Honda’s own technology and do business, but he did not rule out such possibilities.

For instance, he talked about shipping of the Fit subcompact made in Japan to overseas markets.

Furthermore, Mr. Hachigo will return Honda to its historic focus on the production of tech-rich, mechanically reliable – quality, the stuff that the Honda name and reputation was built on.

This news is a further boost for the 3,000 associates working at the UK-based plant, as it follows the recent announcement of new investment at the plant of £200 million, with HUM becoming the global production hub for the next generation Civic five door model.

Speaking at his first news conference, Hachigo also said Honda will be open to “alliances and joint ventures” with rival carmakers to share the cost of developing next-gen technologies. “What drives me forward with my fellow Honda associates is The Power of Dreams“.