POWER PLAYERS Honda leads the world in the design and development of household and industrial power products. Industry Europe looks at the company’s operations in France.
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onda is a global brand that has steadily built upon its reputation for innovation and design excellence since it entered the field of power products in 1953. However it wasn’t until 1993 that Honda Europe Power Equipment (HEPE) became a fully integrated subsidiary of the Honda Motor Group. Today Honda France Manufacturing is responsible for the manufacture of petrol and electrical walk-behind lawn mowers, ride-on mowers and power generators, as well as hand held trimmers and tillers. Honda France supplies more than 30 countries in the European region as well as exporting a selected range of power products to Japan. With increasing competition from the emerging markets and to maintain its position as the world’s number one supplier of quality power products, Honda has put even greater emphasis on its R&D programme.
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This has resulted in a whole new range of energy efficient, versatile power tools and products. The company’s focus on new technologies and high quality is its answer to cheap imports that are flooding the European marketplace. As an integral part of its global strategy for growth, Honda is committed to providing the best quality products for its customers, with speed and affordability combined with low CO2 emissions. Honda Power Equipment offers more than 60 different product models in six major product families. These six categories are generators, lawn mowers, pumps, snowblowers, tillers and trimmers.
A new generation of portable power Every year Honda produces around 50,000 compact petrol generators ranging in capacity from 0.6 – 80KVA, a large proportion of which are manufactured in France.
The broad line-up of models are designed to meet a diverse range of needs, from providing an emergency power source in the event of a power failure, to out-door construction work and leisure activities. Honda has three generator product lines and is constantly raising the standard of its generators to add enhanced performance and value for its customers. In 2012 Honda announced that it was launching its new generation of portable power generator products across all three of its product model ranges. Over three years of investment in research and development have gone into the re-engineering of its ranges, which have resulted in new technological innovations being installed in its Economy Series, the Deluxe Series and in its Industrial Series of generators. Whilst each series of Honda generators retains its own product differentiation, and each
