Opportunities
1. Increasing fuel prices. Honda’s strong emphasis on engineering fuel-efficient vehicles (Honda Insight and Honda Civic) with flexible fuel, hybrid and hydrogen engines will pay off due to increasing fuel prices.
2. Positive outlook for global motorcycle industry. Motorcycle industry grew by 4.2% from 2011 to 2012 and is expected to grow by at least 6% to 2016. Honda is the world’s leading producer and seller of the motorcycles having more than 29% of the market share. Growing demand for the motorcycles is a great opportunity for the company to expand its global market share and grow sales.
3. Growing global demand for environment friendly vehicles. The declining levels of fossil fuel sources and the rising CO2 emissions became a major concern for many people and many governments. Therefore, ecologically friendly cars, powered by hybrid, hydrogen or flexible fuel engines became very popular. The market for such cars was $33 billion in 2010. Honda’s focus on hybrid and hydrogen fueled engines is a great opportunity to capture the market share for this new demand.
4. Growth through acquisitions. Honda could greatly benefit from strategic partnerships or acquisitions of smaller competitors. The business would add new brands to its portfolio, achieve greater economies of scale and would benefit from synergies between different firms.
5. Developing hybrid cars and fuel efficient cars for the future
6. Tapping emerging markets across the world and building a global brand
7. Fast growing automobile market