From its start making motorized bicycles using surplus war parts, Honda has grown into a multinational with core technologies ranging from combustion engines, robotics and aviation, and it is these technologies it will leverage when pursuing new products.

Honda will look to develop an eVTOL for inter-city transport and a renewable energy system for the Moon, amongst other things. Honda’s technology research and development, is pursuing outside-the-box research on technologies that will bring about new value for people by expanding the potential of mobility into the 3rd dimension, then the 4th dimension which defies the constraints of time and space, and ultimately into outer space.

With the fixed-wing Hondajet under its belt, Honda is looking to expand into the burgeoning eVTOL arena. Unlike a number of other eVTOLs in development that are focused on short-range intra-city trips (due to the limitations of battery-powered powertrains), Honda’s offering will pack a gas turbine hybrid power unit to increase range and enable inter-city travel.

Honda says its aircraft will achieve safety levels equal to that of commercial passenger planes thanks to a simple structure and decentralized propulsion system. Noise would also be kept down through the use of rotors with a relatively small diameter, making it possible for the aircraft to use smaller landing and otherwise congested landing spaces with minimal disruption.

The company also says its eVTOL will serve as the core of a new “mobility ecosystem” that will enable coordination with air traffic control and reservation systems, and integration with ground transport, including cars, bikes and driverless vehicles.

SPACE

As part of a joint research effort with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Honda is looking to construct a circulative renewable energy system for use on the Moon. The system would decompose water to produce and store hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be used to supply electricity, while the oxygen could also be used for people staying on the lunar surface or as fuel for rockets.

Finally, prompted by Honda engineers who wanted to leverage the company’s combustion and control and guidance technologies amassed through the development of automated driving technologies to build a small rocket, Honda is planning to get into the satellite launch business. The small rocket will be designed to act as a launch vehicle for small, low Earth orbit satellites, a market Honda says is currently underserved.

“All of the initiatives we introduced today are for the challenges Honda takes on in new areas, but the underlying passion of Honda to use our technology to make people’s lives more enjoyable remains unchanged,” says Keiji Ohtsu, President and Representative Director of Honda R&D Co., Ltd. “Ever since the company’s founding, the wellspring of Honda’s challenges has always been the people at Honda who generate original technologies and ideas. Through the creation of new mobility, Honda will continue striving to change the value people place on mobility and make positive changes to our society.”

This direction will be the fulfillment of Honda’s 2030 Vision of serving people worldwide with the “joy of expanding their life’s potential.”