Honda P-NUT Concept

Honda CEO: F1 less relevant to Honda’s goals – “Poppycock!”

TOKYO (Reuters) – Formula One’s growing restrictions have made the sport less attractive and reduced Honda’s incentive to rejoin a series it abandoned due to the global economic downturn, the company’s new chief executive said Monday. Honda withdrew backing for its under-performing team last December, only to see the same team, now under the Brawn name and Mercedes-Benz power, turn the outfit into championship leaders, and Japan’s second largest automaker said it would consider a return once it had recovered financially.

“It was a real shame that we had to leave Formula One,” Takanobu Ito, who took over as chief executive last month, told a media gathering in Tokyo. “On the other hand, F1 is becoming less of a medium in which companies can test their various strengths and more of an event with mounting restrictions. “There’s little room for us to challenge new fields, so bearing in mind the current state of series, I don’t think we have the desire to return, even if the economy improves.”

What a load of poppycock, or pappekak as the original expression goes. Honda failed horribly over the last few years by obvious mismanagement of a group of very talented people. The same people were very capable to suddenly, without Honda’s expert knowledge, build a race-winning car, despite the upheaval of having Honda pull out at the last minute, having to look for a new engine supplier, and operating on a severly tight budget.
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GS Yuasa and Honda Reach Basic Agreement to Establish Joint Venture Company for Manufacturing, Sales and Research & Development of Lithium-ion Batteries

Tokyo, Japan, December 17, 2008 — GS Yuasa Corporation and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. today announced that they have reached a basic agreement to establish a joint venture company which will manufacture, sell and conduct R&D for high-performance lithium-ion batteries for applications with a central focus on hybrid vehicles. The two companies will now begin concrete discussions with an aim to establish the new company sometime around spring 2009.

It is planned that the ratio of capital investment will be 51% by GS Yuasa and 49% by Honda. The headquarters of the new company is planned to be located in Minami-ku, Kyoto, and the factory is planned to be established within the property of GS Yuasa’s Osadano operation in Fukuchiyama, Kyoto.

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BMW, Mercedes sales plunge, Honda quits Formula One

By Michael Shields and Alastair Himmer

FRANKFURT/TOKYO (Reuters) – Global sales at the world’s top premium carmakers, BMW and Mercedes, plunged by a quarter in November and Honda backed out of Formula One racing as the economic downturn exacted a mounting toll on automakers.

With even well-heeled consumers keeping a tight grip on their wallets, group vehicle sales at BMW fell 25.4 percent to 96,570 units, led down by a 26.2 percent drop at the flagship BMW brand, it said on Friday.

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