Honda has been named in Thomson Reuters’ prestigious Top 100 Global Innovators report for the fifth year in a row.

Honda has been named in Thomson Reuters’ prestigious Top 100 Global Innovators report for the fifth year in a row.  The annual report identifies companies that discover new inventions and successfully patent them.

Describing itself as a list of the top 100 worldwide innovation power players, with winners identified as trendsetters that need to be watched, the report has recognised Honda’s innovation every year since its inception in 2011.

With automotive companies making up 10 per cent of this year’s list, Honda is one of only two car brands to have won a spot in the report for five consecutive years and more interestingly, eight of the 10 automotive brands on the list are Japanese.

Honda has a rich history of innovation.  In the 1970s the business created a Civic engine that hit air quality targets without a catalytic converter.  The 1980s saw Honda-powered F1 cars win the Constructors’ Championship six years in a row.  During the 1990s Honda became the first manufacturer to launch a full hybrid car in the UK, the Insight.  At the start of the 21^st century, the FCX Clarity ground-breaking fur-cell car revealed, while in 2015 the new NSX supercar showcased a twin-turbo engine and three electric motors and the new Clarity Fuel Cell was launched with a fuel stack that can provide electricity in emergency situations, and the new CR-V has the world’s first predictive cruise control.

Philip Crossman, Managing Director at Honda UK, commented: “This year marks our golden anniversary in the UK with 50 years of rich history in innovating in not just cars but bikes and power products.  The business has been built on a strong belief in innovation with our founder Soichiro Honda starting the company almost 70 years ago making low cost motorbikes to help get Japan back on its feet after the ravages of the Second World War.  

"That innate desire to progress society from an engineering and technology perspective continues throughout Honda today with the Tokyo Motor Show launching the Wander Walker and the Wander Stand, both aimed at aiding mobility.  Our continuing work with robotics, namely the ASIMO project, coupled with our constant world firsts in automotive, such as the i-ACC (intelligent adaptive cruise control) which predicts when a car is going to cut in front of you on the motorway, has ensured that we once again make the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators study."

A Thomson Reuters spokesman said: “Our philosophy is that a great idea without patent protection and commercialisation is nothing more than a great idea.”