Honda Motor Co is looking to capture half of the world’s market for motorcycles as industry-wide sales of two-wheelers, both gasoline and electric, are tipped to reach 60 million units annually by 2030.
Honda’s global motorcycle sales are forecast to reach 20.2 million for the fiscal year ending March this year, the Japanese company said during a briefing yesterday, which would give it a share of about 40 percent.
Honda hopes to eventually claim 50 percent of the market, including electric bikes. Growth would particularly come from a region Honda calls the Global South — primarily India, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as Brazil and other countries in South and Central America. It did not give a time frame for that aspiration.
Photo: AFP
Honda’s two-wheeler business made around US$3.6 billion in operating profit in the 12 months that ended March 31 last year, up almost 14 percent from five years earlier.
The company produces more than 20 million units annually at 37 facilities around the world across 23 countries and territories, it said.
Minoru Kato, the executive officer in charge of Honda’s motorcycle unit, said he does not believe the two-wheeler segment will be affected by the company’s plans to fold struggling Nissan Motor Co into its business.
“That said, it’s crucial we find the right synergies as negotiations proceed,” he said.
Honda may also run into issues around tariffs, considering it makes some 9,000 units annually at a factory in Mexico, most of which are imported into the US. US President Donald Trump has threatened to levy hefty tariffs on products crossing the Mexican border.
“Of course, there will be an effect,” Kato said. “We’re considering relocation as a possible option but no decisions have been made.”
As part of its electrification push, Honda plans to roll out 30 e-models globally by 2030 in order to meet its target of annual electric sales of 4 million units by that year.
Other initiatives include working on the reutilization and recycling of batteries, lowering the cost of e-bikes and making its own factories more environmentally friendly by adding solar power systems.
In India, where Honda said it wants to capture the largest share of the electric motorcycle market, the company has started to offer a battery sharing and swapping service so riders do not have to face long waits at charging stations.
Honda also plans to have an electric motorcycle plant in India up and running by 2028.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
Cryptocurrencies gave a lukewarm reception to US President Donald Trump’s first policy moves on digital assets, notching small gains after he commissioned a report on regulation and a crypto reserve. Bitcoin has been broadly steady since Trump took office on Monday and was trading at about US$105,000 yesterday as some of the euphoria around a hoped-for revolution in cryptocurrency regulation ebbed. Smaller cryptocurrency ether has likewise had a fairly steady week, although was up 5 percent in the Asia day to US$3,420. Bitcoin had been one of the most spectacular “Trump trades” in financial markets, gaining 50 percent to break above US$100,000 and
RSS