new Honda CEO

[ScottyB]

http://www.themotorreport.com....a-ceo/



HONDA MOTOR COMPANY has sworn in new president Takanobu Ito, best known for designing the all-aluminium chassis for the Honda NSX sports car.
Ito succeeds Takeo Fukui, president of Honda for the past six years and the man who presided over a Honda that has fared better than world number one Toyota and fellow ÔÇÿtop 3ÔÇ▓ Japanese manufacturer, Nissan, during the global economic downturn.

Ito said this week that despite its relative success during the financial crisis, Honda must regroup and recapture the spirit of the past - the ÔÇÿpower of dreamsÔÇÖ - if it is to maintain its strong position.

The new president will also lead HondaÔÇÖs research and development department, allowing important decisions to be made and pushed into production faster. Insiders at Honda have said that Ito has already made a number of significant internal changes, though they could be two to three years away from bearing any obvious results.

After starting with Honda as an R&D engineer specializing in chassis design, Ito has held a number of important roles within the company.

He has been involved in the development of small sedans for the Japanese market, worked as Executive Vice President of R&D for Honda and Acura in America and was involved in the development of the original NSX.

Ito has also held a mind-boggling array of simultaneous positions with Honda: Sitting on the Board of Directors of Honda Motor Company and being Managing Director of Honda R&D, then onto President and Director of Honda R&D as well as General Supervisor of Motor Sports.








So, does this mean we'll be returning to the "golden age" of fun hondas like from the 90's?

[Steve85]

http://www.themotorreport.com....a-ceo/



After starting with Honda as an R&D engineer specializing in chassis design, Ito has held a number of important roles within the company.

.... as well as General Supervisor of Motor Sports.

I was waiting for the metion of motorsports. I seem to remember watching a Formula 1 race in the days of Honda and they said to reach the top positions in Honda you must go through the racing program. It seems like a good way to keep leading edge technology moving from the racing program to the street cars.

[.RJ]

Uno - Fix the damn MotoGP bike
2 - Fire pedrobot
iii - ???
D - Profit.

[G.Irish]

I have guarded optimism about Ito. Fukui should have brought on a golden age of performance at Honda. He was the original president of HRC and was involved with a lot of motorsport at Honda. Instead we've seen almost no performance offerings since Fukui took the helm, no successor for the S2000, a controversial change in philosophy for the "NSX", and Acura is still lost in the woods due to Honda not biting the bullet and just giving Acura its own RWD platform. Things have fared much better on the motorcycle side but there are still some major holes in the lineup.

That said, Fukui has done a good job of keeping Honda lean and profitable. I'm not particularly happy with his decision to quit F1 but Honda made a lot of cuts across the board in order to not have to lay anyone off during the downturn.

With Ito leading Honda R&D and being CEO at the same time he can push for new stuff at Honda more quickly. Since he was part of the original NSX team one would hope that he understands the essence of what a Honda sportscar could and should be and that he will bring some proper RWD cars into the lineup. But like the article said, you won't see his influence for at least a few years.

[Evan]

I have guarded optimism about Ito. Fukui should have brought on a golden age of performance at Honda. He was the original president of HRC and was involved with a lot of motorsport at Honda.

+1
There is so much pressure on these guys, they stick to their bread and butter and what they percieve as 'safe' to bring in the money, especially in an economy like this. Give him 10 years of success and then maybe he will be willing to take a 'risk'

but yeah, Honda/Acura has become the old toyota. I see zero cars of interest coming from them now or in the future. At least Toyota has a rwd platform and a coming low cost 'AE86' inspired rwd coupe.
hell, even hyundai has some exciting stuff now.