2007 Honda Cr-v 4wd 5dr Ex-l, Leather, Sunroof, Full Power. on 2040-cars

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Honda names first woman, foreigner to its board of directors

General Motors may have made headlines when it recently appointed the industry's first female CEO, but Honda has long lagged woefully behind the times when it comes to the diversity of its top management. In fact, its entire board has until now been composed entirely of Japanese men, with not a foreigner or a woman in sight. But as Reuters reports, that's all changing with the nominations to its latest board.
The slate of new directors named to Honda's board includes one Hideko Kunii, a gender-equality advocate and engineering professor from the Shibaura Institute of Technology. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Kunii spent the bulk of her career at Japanese electronic imaging company Ricoh. Alongside Kunii, Honda has also named Tomoko Mizoguchi to the board as responsible for the company's South American operations, making him the first foreigner to serve on the company's board of directors. (Well, almost: Mizoguchi was born in Brazil, but of Japanese ancestry.)
The appointments follow the recent switch Honda made in its official language policy from Japanese to English, signaling a shift in outlook for a company that has long stuck to traditional Japanese business models. Honda was the first of the major Japanese automakers to begin manufacturing in the United States, and has long relied on hiring local managers to run its regional operations around the world. It has, however, resisted placing foreigners on its board of directors until now, relying instead on senior male managers promoted from within its ranks to serve on its board. This in comparison to Toyota, which has seven foreigners and one woman on its 68-member board of directors, and Nissan, which has fifteen foreigners (including its chief executive) and one woman on its 58-member board.

Honda shifts CR-V production to Canada as UK focuses on Civic

Honda is reshuffling its global production in a somewhat bizarre way. Under the newly announced plans, the European version of the CR-V will no longer be assembled locally, but the region will become the hub for some Civic production. As part of this new strategy, Honda's Canadian manufacturing operations will become responsible for building the next-gen version of the European CR-V. Once assembled, the popular crossovers will then be exported back across the Atlantic. The investment to make these changes comes from 875 million Canadian dollars ($690 million) already allocated by Honda for expansion there. The current European CR-V (pictured above) is made in Swindon, England, and with that model moving to Canada, the site fulfills the second part of this production shuffle. Honda will invest 200 million pounds ($300 million) there to make the location a global production hub specifically for the next-gen Civic five-door hatchback. The examples made in the UK will be not just for Europe but also will be "exported to key global markets," according to the automaker. Honda now confirms one of those markets to be the US, and a recent rumor suggests the company sending over around 40,000 of them a year. Related Video: HONDA OF CANADA MFG. EXPANDS EXPORT DESTINATIONS WITH EUROPEAN SPEC CR-V ALLISTON, ON (March 30, 2015) – Honda of Canada Mfg. (HCM), a division of Honda Canada Inc., announced today that it will produce the next generation CR-V model for the European market. This will be the first time that HCM will export vehicles to Europe. Today's news follows Honda's recent announcement that it will invest $857M in its Canadian facilities, as it prepares for production as the global lead plant for the next generation Honda Civic, Canada's best-selling passenger car for the past 17 years. "Honda is thrilled to once again have good news for automotive manufacturing in Canada by broadening our production portfolio to include exports to the European market," said Jerry Chenkin, President and CEO of Honda Canada Inc. "This expansion decision was made possible due to our deep, mature, and rich talent pool with nearly 30 years of automotive manufacturing experience. We are so proud that our Canadian associates have the reputation of producing high quality vehicles that will meet the needs of the discerning European customer." The announcement further solidifies Honda's already deep roots and commitment to Canada.

Honda, Top Gear working on 130-mph lawn mower

We're not even sure they've got a blade of Kentucky Bluegrass to cut, but the folks at Top Gear have gone ahead and started building what will become, if they're successful, the world's fastest lawn mower. Actually, it appears Top Gear is not doing much of the design and assembly work at all, instead having solicited help from experts at Honda and Team Dynamics, which oversees the automaker's touring car efforts.
What the three are working on is a riding lawnmower with a 110-hp engine that can reach 60 miles per hour in four seconds and trim turf at speeds up to 130 mph. If they succeed, such a maximum velocity would put them well ahead of the current record for the world's fastest lawnmower, which is 96.529 mph set by Bobby Cleveland and his Snapper race mower at the Bonneville Salt Flats in September of 2010. Top Gear hasn't said whether or not it will officially go after Cleveland's record, but the build will be featured in an upcoming issue of the Top Gear magazine and is scheduled to be completed by June 17, so we may learn what this maniacal mower's true purpose is then.
According to TG's report on how the build is going, as well as the video of it being fired up (literally) for the first time below, there aren't many actual mower parts left on this machine. What started out as a Honda HF2620 mower now sports wheels and tires from a racing quad, a back axle from a go-kart, a steering rack from a Morris Minor and a 1000cc engine from a Honda VTR1000F sport bike. All that remains from the original mower are the pedals and body panels; even the steel cutting deck has been replaced with a lighter fiberglass version. And blades? This mower will be bladeless, instead using two electric motors to spin lengths of brake cable like a weed whacker.